Template talk:Iso1

10He	11Li	12Be	13B	14C	15N	16O	17F	18Ne	19Na	20Mg
...
18B	19C	20N	21O	22F	23Ne	24Na	25Mg	26Al	27Si	28P	29S

Instructions for using templates in the isotope table

The isotope table article has caused trouble for several users because it is too big for certain web browsers' editors (more than 90 kB), e.g. typographical errors have been introduced by the software. Partly to reduce file size (less than 45 kB) and partly to make the isotope table easier to edit, a few templates have been introduced for use in this article.

Here are instructions for using the templates, plus an excerpt from the isotope table code and a demonstration of what the isotope table will look like. See for instance the links to Tritium and Carbon-14, and the two-coloured cell of Al-26.

Using the templates

Template	Syntax	Effective text
	Explanation and comments
{{Iso1}}	{{Iso1|Nr|Symbol|X}}	title="{{Iso/X/text}}" style="background:{{Iso/X}};" | <small><sup>Nr</sup></small>Symbol
	{{Iso1|Nr|Symbol}}	title="Unstable" style="background:white;" | <small><sup>Nr</sup></small>Symbol
	One-coloured cells X is member of "ROYGBIV-" and represents a red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet or white background colour of a whole table cell. If X is omitted, the colour defaults to white. Nr and Symbol represent atomic number and chemical symbol and are rendered as NrSymbol. Symbol may contain links, e.g. [[Helium-4|He]] is rendered as He.
{{Iso2}}	{{Iso2|Nr|Symbol|X|Z}}	title="Isotope: {{Iso/X/text}}; Nuclear isomer: {{Iso/Z/text}}" style="background:{{Iso/Z}};" | <div style="background:{{Iso/X}};"> <small><sup>Nr</sup></small>Symbol</div>
	{{Iso2|Nr|Symbol|X}}	title="Isotope: {{Iso/X/text}}; Nuclear isomer: Unstable" style="background:white;" | <div style="background:{{Iso/X}};"> <small><sup>Nr</sup></small>Symbol</div>
	Two-coloured cells X and Z are members of "ROYGBIV-" as mentioned above. X is the background colour of the text, and Z is the border colour of the table cell. If Z is omitted, the border defaults to white. Nr and Symbol are the same as above. In principle this template could be used for both one- and two-coloured cells. However, this template yields more text than the first one, calls the double number of sub-templates, and also displays misleading popup titles if used in one-coloured cells. Therefore it should only be used when there is actually a need for two colours.
The following templates are generally not used independently, but are called by Iso1 and Iso2 using the variables X and Z: {{Iso/R}}, {{Iso/O}}, {{Iso/Y}}, {{Iso/G}}, {{Iso/B}}, {{Iso/I}}, {{Iso/V}}, and {{Iso/-}} contain colour codes, e.g. red is #A9A9A9 {{Iso/R/text}}, {{Iso/O/text}}, {{Iso/Y/text}}, {{Iso/G/text}}, {{Iso/B/text}}, {{Iso/I/text}}, {{Iso/V/text}}, and {{Iso/-/text}} contain legends to the colours, e.g. the legend to yellow is "10k–103M years"

How the colors are assigned

category	color	category	color
-		V
I		B
G		Y
O		R

Adding a drip line

Whereever you want to add the proton or neutron drip line to the chart, add the option |drip= with one of the values t (top), r (right), tr (top-right), tl (top-left), trb (top-right-bottom), tb (top-bottom), tlr (top-left-right), b (bottom), l (left), bl (bottom-left), br (bottom-right), blr (bottom-left-right), lr (left-right), or tlb (top-left-bottom) to the cell template Iso1 or Iso2, as demonstrated in the example below. To avoid confusion, only specify drip lines from inner cells.

{{Iso2|1070|Uxq|O|drip=trb}}

1070Uxq

Or in empty cells: {{Iso1|drip=bl}}

Explanation of background colours

Half-lives (example: Gd) 145Gd < 1 day 149Gd 1–10 days 146Gd 10–100 days 153Gd 100 days–10 a 148Gd 10–10,000 a 150Gd 10 ka–700 Ma 152Gd > 700 Ma 158Gd Stable

Half-lives (example: Gd) 145Gd < 1 day 149Gd 1–10 days 146Gd 10–100 days 153Gd 100 days–10 a 148Gd 10–10,000 a 150Gd 10 ka–700 Ma 152Gd > 700 Ma 158Gd Stable

The background colour of each isotope's cell indicates the isotope's physical half-life. See colour chart to the right. Differently coloured borders indicate half-lives of the most stable nuclear isomer states.

To insert this colour chart in an article, add the following tag:

{{isotope colour chart}}

The template takes an optional, nameless parameter that may be used to add styles such as table width or font effects, or override the default styles. The styles are given as a semicolon-separated list using colon as the assignment operator, e.g.:

background:pink; font-style:italic;

The parameter is separated from the template name with a pipe ("|"), and the full template call becomes:

{{isotope colour chart | background:pink; font-style:italic;}}

The result is shown to the lower right.

Excerpt from the isotope table code

{| cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="1" width="100%" |+ '''List of known [[isotope]]s''' |-  ![[proton|p]] → !1 !2 ... |- !2 |{{Iso1|3|[[Tritium|T]]|O}} |{{Iso1|4|[[Helium-4|He]]|R}} |{{Iso1|5|Li}} |{{Iso1|6|Be}} |{{Iso1|7|B }} |{{Iso1|8|C }}  ![[Nitrogen|N]] !8 |- !3 |{{Iso1|4|[[Hydrogen-4|H]]}} |{{Iso1|5|[[Exotic helium isotopes|He]]}} |{{Iso1|6|Li|R}} |{{Iso1|7|Be|I}} |{{Iso1|8|B }} |{{Iso1|9|C }} |{{Iso1|10|N }}  ![[Oxygen|O]] !9 ... |- | !8 |{{Iso1|10|[[Exotic helium isotopes|He]]}} |{{Iso1|11|Li}} |{{Iso1|12|Be}} |{{Iso1|13|B }} |{{Iso1|14|[[Carbon-14|C]]|O}} |{{Iso1|15|N |R}} |{{Iso1|16|O |R}} |{{Iso1|17|F }} |{{Iso1|18|Ne}} |{{Iso1|19|Na}} |{{Iso1|20|Mg}}  ![[Aluminium|Al]] !14 ... |- |colspan="4"| !13 |{{Iso1|18|B }} |{{Iso1|19|C }} |{{Iso1|20|N }} |{{Iso1|21|O }} |{{Iso1|22|F }} |{{Iso1|23|Ne}} |{{Iso1|24|Na}} |{{Iso1|25|Mg|R}} |{{Iso2|26|Al|Y}} |{{Iso1|27|Si}} |{{Iso1|28|P }} |{{Iso1|29|S }} |  ![[Argon|Ar]] !19 ... |}

Excerpt from the isotope table

p →	1	2
n ↓	H	He	3	4
0	1H		Li	Be	5	6
1	2D	3He	4Li	5Be	B	C	7
2	3T	4He	5Li	6Be	7B	8C	N	8
3	4H	5He	6Li	7Be	8B	9C	10N	O	9
4	5H	6He	7Li	8Be	9B	10C	11N	12O	F	10
5	6H	7He	8Li	9Be	10B	11C	12N	13O	14F	Ne	11
6	7H	8He	9Li	10Be	11B	12C	13N	14O	15F	16Ne	Na	12
	7	9He	10Li	11Be	12B	13C	14N	15O	16F	17Ne	18Na	Mg	13
	8	10He	11Li	12Be	13B	14C	15N	16O	17F	18Ne	19Na	20Mg	Al	14
		9	12Li	13Be	14B	15C	16N	17O	18F	19Ne	20Na	21Mg	22Al	Si	15
			10	14Be	15B	16C	17N	18O	19F	20Ne	21Na	22Mg	23Al		P	16
				11	16B	17C	18N	19O	20F	21Ne	22Na	23Mg	24Al	25Si		S	17
				12	17B	18C	19N	20O	21F	22Ne	23Na	24Mg	25Al	26Si	27P		Cl	18
				13	18B	19C	20N	21O	22F	23Ne	24Na	25Mg	26Al	27Si	28P	29S		Ar	19
				14	19B	20C	21N	22O	23F	24Ne	25Na	26Mg	27Al	28Si	29P	30S	31Cl		K	20
					15	21C	22N	23O	24F	25Ne	26Na	27Mg	28Al	29Si	30P	31S	32Cl	33Ar		Ca

Discussion

Popup titles in the isotope table cells

Popup titles displaying half-lives when hovering over table cells were added in January 2006. For background and discussion see Talk:Isotope table (complete)#Alternatives for displaying colour legend.

13 July 2006 edit

Presumably this was for performance, but there was no documentation and it was by an anon IP. Is there any way we can tell how this change actually affects performance? --JWB 21:44, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Proposed color changes

Here is a proposal for splitting the longer-lived categories into more precise bands, with the colors based on interpolation of the present ones. Red is left as stable here, so this proposal is disjoint from the one at Talk:Isotope table (complete)#Red to gray?. Or, if we do adopt gray for stable, the 100ky+ categories can be shifted down one color, as the colors for 10k-100k and 100k-1m do not look very distinct, at least on my monitor. --JWB 16:53, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

145Gd	<1 day
146Gd	1–10 days
149Gd	10–100 days
153Gd	100d–1 year
147Pm	1-10 years
148Gd	10–100 years
241Am	100-1000 years
14C	1000-10000 years
239Pu	10k–100k years
99Tc	100k-1m years
150Gd	1m-10m years
129I	10m-103m years
238U	700m-14b years
152Gd	38b-50q years
158Gd	Stable

I'm going to give gray (#BBB) a try as nobody has objected. Discuss here or at Talk:Isotope table (complete)#Red to gray?. --JWB 19:04, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Another Color proposal

I liked the Isotope table, but found the coloring scheme a bit counter-intuitive: it seemed to me that "energetic" colors on the warm end of the spectrum should represent the more unstable elements, while cooler colors should go on the more stable end of the scale. Here's a proposed scheme:

Half-lives (example: Gd)

145Gd	<1 day
146Gd	1-10 days
149Gd	10-100 days
153Gd	100d–10 years
148Gd	10-10,000 years
150Gd	10k–103m years
152Gd	>700m years
158Gd	Stable

What do you think? --Erudy (talk) 20:16, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

I agree. However, I would suggest finishing the table with the sequence orange > yellow > white for a better lightness gradient. --IanOsgood (talk) 19:57, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

Good point...although I didn't change the order of the colors (I wanted to keep the traditional coolness/warmth gradient), I lightened the "orange" color into more of a pink to maintain the light/dark gradient. Also I removed one of the more blue colors to reduce ambiguity. How does this appear on other people's screens?

Half-lives (example: Gd)

145Gd	<1 day
146Gd	1-10 days
149Gd	10-100 days
153Gd	100d–10 year
148Gd	10-10,000 years
150Gd	10k–103m years
152Gd	>700m years
158Gd	Stable

Erudy (talk) 15:35, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

This is also being discussed at Talk:Isotope table (complete)#Red to gray?. Physical color temperature and traditional color symbolism give opposite results. There is also the possibility of using brightness or saturation to indicate stability and reserving color for decay mode or something else, for example as in the unimplemented Wikipedia:WikiProject_Isotopes#Color_scheme. In any case, I want to split up the halflife categories into finer ones. --JWB (talk) 17:55, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

Interesting point about the opposition of physical color temperature and psychological color temperature. Personally, I find the "psychological" version more compelling, at least in this context. I think the whole point of a graphical device such as Isotope table is to make information quickly and clearly accessible, and I think the "psychological" spectrum does that better, even if it's not as "accurate". It would be more accurate to lay all the isotopes out in writing on some gigantic spreadsheet, giving their precise half lives etc. Of course such a spreadsheet would be unreadable.

Wikipedia:WikiProject_Isotopes#Color_scheme is certainly an ambitious proposal, and I guess I'm not sure that it is not trying to cram too much information into the available space. I feel like we can communicate one piece of information (length of half-life) in a clear and intuitive way (using of couple dimensions of spectrum, ie "psychological" cold->warm plus dull->bright), or we can try to communicate more pieces of information (length of half life and type of decay) with less clarity ("pastel->saturation/brightness" for one and "scientific" cold->warm for the other) I see the value of communicating type of decay, but wonder if it wouldn't be more effectively done with some sort of symbol rather than a color? Wouldn't having, I don't know, a β tucked into the corner of the box (perhaps underneath the isotope number?) more intuitively communicate beta radiation than the color blue, for instance? (I'm more of an interested layperson than an expert in all this, so maybe there is some sort of connection between the blue and beta radiation, but I don't know it.)

As for adding more "steps" in the spectum, and thus increasing precision, I'd say it's a great idea. However, I also feel that it's a different discussion.Erudy (talk) 16:23, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

I'm going to be bold and try implementing this on iso1 and iso2Erudy (talk) 19:07, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

I'm finding it harder to read, but I was used to the previous scheme since I've used and edited this page a lot. I do think that color temperature with blue hotter is intuitive to people familiar with any one of many fields like photography, metallurgy, or stellar evolution. Also note the names of the color/halflife templates are still the first letters of the original colors.

I do think that using saturation (the black to white dimension), perhaps along with color, to indicate halflife, would add readability. Currently, very unstable is white and stable is gray, so intermediate halflives should also progress along this scale, even if they also have color.

I've made some attempts to draft tables or lists of isotopes organized by other criteria like halflife; see my user page for links.

Indicating decay mode in some other way than color is not a bad idea if designed well, but it would also have to be implemented, which may be difficult for many schemes. To some extent decay mode is predictable from position on the chart (above the stable sequence, below, or high mass) and it is the exceptions that need to be highlighted. --JWB (talk) 19:42, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

I'm still finding Erudy's scheme to be much harder to read. --JWB (talk) 00:46, 22 May 2008 (UTC)