Atom in a Box 1.0.8 review

Atom in a Box is an application that aids in visualizing the Hydrogenic atomic orbitals, a prime and otherwise unwieldy example of quantum mechanics.

License: Trial OS: Mac OS X File size: 404K Developer: Dean Dauger Buy Now Price: $19.00 Updated: 07 Jun 2004

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Atom in a Box is an application that aids in visualizing the Hydrogenic atomic orbitals, a prime and otherwise unwieldy example of quantum mechanics.

Unlike other tools in this category, this program raytraces through a three-dimensional cloud density that represents the wavefunction's probability density and presents its results in real-time (up to 48 frames per second on the latest hardware).

The user interface is very interactive and provides a wide degree of flexibility. It contains all 140 eigenstates up to the n=7 energy level and the allowed spectral transitions between those eigenstates.

It also allows a state formed by a superposition of up to eight of those eigenstates allowing for over 3 trillion possible states. The program can display a wavefunction as a picture of a cloud, use color as phase, plot in red-cyan left/right for 3D glasses, and slice the wavefunction.