©®™. Peter Burke.  All Rights Reserved.

Designed for iPhone, iPad  and iPodTouch device compatibility by independent developer and Associate Professor Peter Burke [University of California at Irvine], the iNanotube™ 1.1 for iOS app is where the rubber meets the road in the forging ahead towards advanced STEM pedagogical paths.

This thoroughly-engaging, atomic-scaled wire visualization  teaching tool is instructive - for example - in conveying the plethora of technical possibilities in the creation of different diameters and spiral patterns. Utilizing SmartPhone and Tablet media, users interface with multitudinous combinations of (n,m), [about 2/3 of which result in semiconducting nanotubes, and the other approximate 1/3  producing metallic nanotubes]. 

By means of this disruptively educational implementation, students graphically explore the making of multitudinous kinds of carbon nanotubes and very specific crystal structures via ab initio calculations of the atomic positions - performed by the iPhone™ mathematics processor - by diameter and spiral pattern.

Following self-directed manipulations, constructions, and design of graphical animations of elemental, essential graphene lattices  morphing into carbon nanotubes, students interactively learn how the (n,m) index determines nanotube diameter and spiral winding pattern, and come away with clear, clean, intuitive (even intimate) comprehension of the inter-relationships between the (n,m) index, crystal structures, structural bonding, and fundamental atomic components.

iNanotube™    didactically demonstrates - in intricate, virtualised, representative  detail- novel concepts of atomic control. Its highly innovative features include:

• Ability to render both metallic and semiconducting CNTs
• Ability to select the radius of the rendered nanotube
• Pinch & zoom, rotate, and swipe gesture recognition for easy, familiar, intuitive user interaction
• Unique 3D animation that clearly explains how atomic sheets are rolled into a tube
• New insights into structure and function of nanotubes
• Industry standard rendering modes, such as ball and stick, wireframe, and space filling modes
• Simple explanation of how the 3D atomic structure relates to applications of nanotubes

Anticipated by Burke are "future design of atom-by-atom constructions of many nanotechnology objects such as graphene and other materials".

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nanotube/id419294263?mt=8#

http://www.nanotubeapp.com/

[Legal Disclaimer: This blogger has derived no compensation for this announcement or app review (which is not to say that proper compensation of one's time and mind is considered by her to be - in and of itself - a pecuniary offense)].