Educational Software in TUXEDO OS: Science - TUXEDO Computers

The KDE project offers educational software from many fields of interest that can be installed in TUXEDO OS.

In this episode of our series, we look at software that introduces you to the world of science. We take a look at the applications “Cantor”, “KAlgebra”, “Kalzium”, “KStars”, “Marble”, “KTechlab”, “Steps” and “LabPlot”.

Cantor

Cantor is a user interface for powerful mathematics and statistics packages. Cantor integrates these into the KDE platform and provides a worksheet-based graphical user interface. It supports environments for KAlgebra, Lua, Maxima, Julia, R, Sage, Octave, Python, Scilab, and Qalculate. Cantor allows you to use your favourite mathematical programming language in a convenient interface. It provides wizard dialogues for common tasks and allows you to share your worksheets with others.

KAlgebra

KAlgebra is an application that can replace your graphing calculator. KAlgebra has numerical, logical, symbolic and analytical capabilities that allow you to evaluate mathematical expressions in the console and display the results in two or three dimensions. KAlgebra is based on the Mathematical Markup Language (MathML), but no knowledge of MathML is required to use KAlgebra successfully.

Kalzium

Kalzium is a programme that teaches you about the periodic table of the elements. You can use Kalzium to search for information about elements or to learn facts about the periodic table. Kalzium contains an overview of the most important data such as melting point, electron affinity, electronegativity, electron configuration, radii, masses and ionisation energy, an isotope table, different coloured views of the periodic table. Furthermore, the programme allows the visualisation of spectral lines for all elements, the calculation of molecular weights, the three-dimensional embedding of molecules and the solution of equations with problems from the field of stoichiometry.

Kstars

KStars is a freely licensed, open source, cross-platform astronomy software from KDE. It is available for Linux, macOS and MS Windows.

KStars precisely simulates the view of the night sky from any point on Earth, at any date and time. Currently, the planetarium features up to 100 million stars, 13000 deep-sky objects, all eight planets, the Sun and the Moon, as well as thousands of comets, asteroids, supernovae and satellites.

For students and teachers, it supports adjustable simulation speeds to view phenomena that occur on long time scales, the KStars astral calculator to predict conjunctions, and many general astronomical calculations.

For the amateur astronomer, it offers an observing planner, a sky calendar and an STF editor to calculate and display fields of view of instruments. Find objects of interest with “What’s Going On Tonight”, draw altitude-time diagrams for each object, print high quality sky maps and access a wealth of information and resources to help you explore the universe.

Included with KStars is the Ekos astrophotography program, a complete astrophotography solution that can control all INDI-enabled devices, including numerous telescopes, CCDs, DSLRs, focusers, filters and more. Ekos supports high-precision tracking with online and offline astrometry solution, auto-focusing and auto-tracking, as well as single or multiple image capture with powerful built-in acquisition sequence management.

Astronomical catalogues:

• Standard catalogue with stars up to magnitude 8
• Additional catalogues with 100 million stars up to magnitude 16
• Downloadable catalogues including Messier images, Abell catalogue, Sharpless catalogue and Lynd’s Dark Nebula catalogue.
• Corrections for precession, nutation and atmospheric refraction
• Tools for downloading data from online databases

A detailed manual introduces the use of KStars.

Marble

Not the starry sky, but the earth and other planets are depicted by Marble. Marble is a virtual globe and world atlas - a powerful tool for geographical maps. You can use it to learn more about the Earth and other planets.

Explore the neighbourhood with Marble’s rich set of city and street maps. Search for interesting addresses and places. Marble takes care of querying different search modules and presents their results in a unified view. Marble is also ideal for calculating pedestrian, bicycle and car routes - online and offline and with any number of intermediate destinations.

Start exploring the world. View clouds and sun shadows, follow satellites and space stations and view their orbits, all updated in real time. Travel back in time and learn about historical views of our planet using maps from centuries past. Earth is not enough? Marble also offers maps of the Moon, Mars or Venus. It is also possible to create and integrate your own maps. Besides Linux, Marble also runs under macOS and MS Windows.

LabPlot

LabPlot is an easy-to-use cross-platform software for data visualisation and analysis of scientific data. LabPlot allows you to easily create, manage and edit graphs. Graphics can be generated from external data or from a table. The export of graphics in various pixmap and vector formats is also possible.

Functions can be displayed graphically, as well as two-dimensional and three-dimensional, polar and triangular plots can be generated. Import and export of numerous data formats is supported. Functions such as fitting, integration, convolution and FFT are available for data analysis. Besides Linux, LabPlot also runs under macOS and MS Windows.

Step

Step is an interactive 2D physics simulator that lets you explore the world of physics through simulations. To do this, place some bodies in the experiment window and add forces such as gravity or springs. Then click on the “Start simulation” button and observe how your experiment changes according to the laws of physics. Any property of bodies or forces can even be changed in the running simulation. With Step you can experience how physics works in the world.At its heart is StepCore, a simulation library for physics. Step allows you to reset a simulation that has been started, so that the user can make changes and see how they affect it.

KTechlab

KTechlab is an integrated development environment for electronic circuits and microcontrollers. It includes simulation of a variety of components (logic, integrated, linear, nonlinear, and reactive), simulation and debugging of PIC microcontrollers via gpsim, and use of the Flowcode programming language. KTechlab aims to be as easy to use as possible. All components and FlowParts have context sensitive help. Simulating electronics requires nothing more than dragging components onto the workspace and creating connections that automatically route signals between their pins. FlowCode allows users just starting out with PIC flash microcontroller to create their own programs right away, while electronics simulation allows you to step through the PIC’s assembly program inside the circuit.

All presented applications can be installed in TUXEDO OS in the software store Discover. Most of them are also available as flatpaks, some as snap. Some are also available in the Microsoft app store.