PowerPoint: Showing Chemistry
Bigger Than Life
By Ken Costello
Text in this yellow box
are comments about
the animation
techniques used.
Text in the scroll boxes
are what I normally say
when the slide is showing.
Samples of PowerPoint animations from various presentations.

To learn the techniques, run the PowerPoint and
then stop it after each slide to examine the
Custom Animation Window. Bring up the
window by going to the SlideShow pull down
menu at the top of the screen and then choosing
“Custom Animation…”
Click on the animations listed to see its name,
the speed, how it starts, and other properties.
Click the small down arrow to the right of the
animation name to bring up Effect Options
window.
To start the PowerPoint on different slides, either
click the small projector screen icon at the
bottom left or press Shift-F5.

Elements are the new building blocks
Hydrogen
Nitrogen-7


Hydrogen
Hydrogen
Carbon-6
Hydrogen
Hydrogen
Compounds are two
or more elements that
share electrons.
Here the idea of
sharing electrons is
presented with
electrons that are
following custom
motion paths (curved
type)
When electrons are
shared, they don’t
just stay around the
element that first
owned them.

H
H
H
N
C
O
Elements are the new building blocks
O

H
H
C
H
H
C
H
H
C
H
H
C
H
C
H
H
H
D
i
e
s
e
l
-
1
2
O
i
l
-

C
H
H
C
H
C
H
H
H
H
H
H
C
H
C
H
H
C
H
H
C
H
H
C
H
H
C
H
C
H

C
O
O
C
C
N
O
H
HH
Ammonia
Acetic acid
Vinegar
C
H
H
H
Let’s look at ammonia
and acetic acid and how
the proton from acetic
acid may go to ammonia
to make ammonium ion
Here I’m using circle motion paths and
custom motion paths (curved type).

H
H
H
N
C
O

S
H
O
H
C
N
O
H
C
H
H
H
H
H
O
C
N
O
C
H
H
Glycine
Amino acids connect as a
water molecule is
released.
The “Down” motion path was
used for water, then adjusted
by moving the end. Glycine
came in using the “Left” path.


Chemistry
changes
the way
you look at
the world.
I found te
picture of
the eyes
but added
various
autoshape
objects.
They were
rotated with
the Spin
Emphasis
effect,
which was
set to
repeat
using the
“Effect
Option”
menu.

When writers try to
explain quantum
chemistry they often
resort to the fantasy
world of Alice in

with atoms only 0.07 nanometers
across.
The “drawing” seems childish until
you realize how small the carbon
dioxide molecules are.
You are familiar with
needlepoint. By placing small
stitches on a surface, you can
make designs.

Imagine you are
going to make this
snowflake design and
each stitch is an
atom.
Here the stitches are much larger
than atoms. To get a sense of the
size of atoms, we must place this
needlepoint pattern far way.
Yes, from this distance we can
realize how small those stitches
are. However, we have to pull
back even farther to have them
the size of atoms.
Now imagine that your hand is
very large and you are trying to
place those stitches (atoms) in
that needlepoint pattern there on
Earth.
Do you now have an