Physical constants and functions

A library for (wx)Maxima for physical constants, isotope masses and nuclear decay calculations.

The database contains 3557 known isotopes!

An example calculation:

Usage

Download or clone this repository to your local .maxima-folder.

In wxMaxima enter load(my_constants) for using the constants and load(nuclear_physics) for nuclear physics.

Now you are ready (some examples):

• %U gives you the atomic number for Uranium.
• searchElementName(12) gives you the name of the 12th element.
• decays(231, %Th) or decays(231, "Th") shows you all possible nuclear decays of Thorium-231 (calculated from mass defect).
• speedFromEnergy(1e6*%qe, %me) calculates the speed of an electron with 1MeV kinetic energy.

Constants defined

All defined physical constants start with the %-symbol.

Examples:

• %c ... Speed of light
• %qe ... Electron charge
• %G ... Universal gravity constant
• %me ... Electron mass
• '%mHe4` ... Atomic mass of He-4
• ...

Functions defined

Entering nuclear() shows a usage message for all defined functions.

Shell scripts provided

generate_isotopemassesXX.sh generates isotopemassesXX.mac from provided mass.masXX

generate_isotope_arrayXX.sh generates isotope_arrayXX.mac from provided mass.masXX

switch_to_year changes symlinks to the given year. (Normally not necessary.)

get_masses just a stub to show the download link.

Acknowledgment

Live Chart of Nuclids: https://www-nds.iaea.org/relnsd/vcharthtml/VChartHTML.html

Database of isotope masses: https://www-nds.iaea.org/amdc/