Template talk:Physical properties

Physical Properties Templates

Hi Paul,

I posted this on Talk:Cadmium, but wanted to get some feedback from Chem Editors so figured I'd just ask...

I had this kooky idea of trying to store materials physical properties data in templates so we can call it up from multiple locations and keep it current. That way we can do things like this:

Selected Electronegativities:
{{Selected Electronegativities|Hydrogen}}

and... Selected Melting Points:
{{Selected melting points|Hydrogen}}

and also....

{{[[Template:Resizable Periodic table of elements |Resizable Periodic table of elements ]]}} ...pretty easily.

Also, I've started the {{Physical properties}} template to display the info in the articles (please see Lead or Cadmium/MSDS for examples). I have (I believe) left open the option of using the system for any material, not just the chemical elements. Any objections? Reasons it won't work? Things I should change? Feedback is welcome....--David Yamakuchi 10:23, 25 April 2008 (CDT)

• It is not clear to me how easy it is to update the centrally stored values. It is important that they are as reliable as possible and: (i) people can make mistakes in entering them and (ii) values can change by better measurements. In both cases updating should be easily done by all. Further, definitions are not always as clearcut as you may think they are. There are different definitions (and scales) of electronegativity, for instance. Your template should clearly state which are the ones listed. --Paul Wormer 08:47, 1 May 2008 (CDT)

I agree that the editing of the property values need to be easy enough that a Non-Technical Person (NTP) can do it without confusion or errors. Thus far, I have been focused on getting the system working and then spent a little time on the "view" of the data, which right now, looks like it might live in the MSDS or Isotopes page. In the future, perhaps we can write different "viewers" for the data, including maybe a "edit the data values viewer".

At this time, if you click on the "xxxxx/Physical Properties" link at the bottom of the table/view, it takes you to the template to add data (stored in the template in the form of a switch statement), which is maybe a simpler syntax (better for NTPs) for the data than the wikitable was with all it's added "centers" and pipes and such. I'm currently looking at a slightly more sophisticated system for the Isotopes (or Isotpes as I guess we are now spelling it).--David Yamakuchi 11:16, 1 May 2008 (CDT)

Physical properties

Hey, keeping the per-element physical properties in a template is a fabulous idea. One question, though; in {{Physical properties}}, why are you passing the element name in, as "|Material = <whatever"? Would't {BASEPAGENAME} or something give it to you? J. Noel Chiappa 20:38, 29 April 2008 (CDT)

I just blatently stole something I saw on the metadata templates. If you see a more elegant way to do the same thing, then please do implement...--David Yamakuchi 20:42, 29 April 2008 (CDT)

I've been watching your progress although not following it in detail. I notice you have hit upon a problem that I had too. Some values are calculated to many significant figures and because we have no strings there is no way to automate rounding off the numbers. My solution was to do it manually, clearly not the way to go. Any news on whether strings will be added? Chris Day 11:29, 1 May 2008 (CDT)

Just so you know, the Isotpes page in Lead was an intentional misspelling. I was testing an error checking method to help us catch typos when people use the tab1-tab3 feature. You can change it back to Isotopes if it is causing a problem. Chris Day 11:35, 1 May 2008 (CDT)

Actually, I just went ahead and fixed it. So it is at its correct home now (Lead/Isotopes. Chris Day 11:47, 1 May 2008 (CDT)

{{Physical properties}}

Chris/Richard/Noel, would one of you be able to take a look at Phosphorus/MSDS#Physical__Properties and help me figure out how to get rid of the extra whitespace in the Mass and Electronegativity cells? I'm stumped. It looks like it's coming from the line breaks in between lines in {{Physical properties}}, but when I remove them, the table stops recognizing the new rows for some crazy reason...#^%$!!!. It seems like it's possibly something so simple someone with a fair amount of wikitable knowlege will scoff at it, but sadly, that aint me. So, if you have a couple of minutes to spare, please...scoff away :-) --David Yamakuchi 21:45, 27 April 2008 (CDT)

Never mind. I got it!--David Yamakuchi 23:07, 27 April 2008 (CDT)