Flame Detective
Flame Detective
Flame Test Detective is an offline chemistry and mineralogy bench for high-school and university chemistry students, science teachers and rockhounds who need to identify a substance by the colour it burns. The app turns the classic flame test into a hands-on, fully simulated procedure: you choose one of 24 reagent salts from the shelf, load a nichrome loop, pull the burner handle and watch a Canvas-drawn flame shift to the true observed colour. Two authentic lab mechanics make it different from a generic simulation: the loop must be cleaned with the hydrochloric acid dip between runs, or the next reading is contaminated and sodium's yellow glare masks everything else, and a cobalt-blue filter can be toggled to suppress that glare, exactly as in a real lab. From the bench the user moves into side-by-side emission line spectra, a 24-metal reference library with detection limits, a 30-sample Unknown Challenge with three difficulty tiers, a mineral field guide built on flame and borax-bead behaviour, and a confusion-pairs comparison for the colours students always mix up. Everything — spectra, reagents, mineral cards, challenge samples — ships inside the app; there is no account, no network call and no in-app purchase. The icon is a burner flame with a molten lava glow, tying the product to the operator's fiery icon direction while keeping the product itself in chemistry education rather than volcanoes or fire performance.
About Flame Detective
Flame Test Detective is an offline chemistry and mineralogy bench for high-school and university chemistry students, science teachers and rockhounds who need to identify a substance by the colour it burns. The app turns the classic flame test into a hands-on, fully simulated procedure: you choose one of 24 reagent salts from the shelf, load a nichrome loop, pull the burner handle and watch a Canvas-drawn flame shift to the true observed colour. Two authentic lab mechanics make it different from a generic simulation: the loop must be cleaned with the hydrochloric acid dip between runs, or the next reading is contaminated and sodium's yellow glare masks everything else, and a cobalt-blue filter can be toggled to suppress that glare, exactly as in a real lab. From the bench the user moves into side-by-side emission line spectra, a 24-metal reference library with detection limits, a 30-sample Unknown Challenge with three difficulty tiers, a mineral field guide built on flame and borax-bead behaviour, and a confusion-pairs comparison for the colours students always mix up. Everything — spectra, reagents, mineral cards, challenge samples — ships inside the app; there is no account, no network call and no in-app purchase. The icon is a burner flame with a molten lava glow, tying the product to the operator's fiery icon direction while keeping the product itself in chemistry education rather than volcanoes or fire performance.
Screenshots
Flame Detective on iPhone and iPad.
Highlights
Lab Bench: pick any of 24 reagent salts (lithium…
Lab Bench: pick any of 24 reagent salts (lithium, strontium, copper, potassium, sodium, barium, calcium and more), tap the loop, pull the burner trigger and watch the SwiftUI Canvas flame animate into the true observed colour with CoreHaptics feedback and a plain-language colour descriptor under the flame.
Loop hygiene mechanic: every run leaves residue …
Loop hygiene mechanic: every run leaves residue on the loop; if the hydrochloric acid dip is skipped, the next reading is tinted by the leftover salt and the app explains the masking effect (sodium hides potassium at very low concentration), then lets the user clean and re-test for a corrected reading.
Cobalt-glass filter: toggle a real cobalt blue f…
Cobalt-glass filter: toggle a real cobalt blue filter over the flame view that suppresses sodium's yellow glare and reveals the lilac and green emitted by other salts, with a short note on when a lab would use it.
Spectra Compare: Swift Charts line spectra with …
Spectra Compare: Swift Charts line spectra with a wavelength axis for each element, shown directly beside the flame colour so the user can match the visible colour to its emission lines and the strongest line's wavelength.
Unknown Challenge: 30 seeded unknown samples ove…
Unknown Challenge: 30 seeded unknown samples over three difficulty tiers; run as many tests as needed, commit an answer, then read an explanation of the correct identification and the typical misidentifications that made the sample hard.
Metal reference library: 24 entries with flame-c…
Metal reference library: 24 entries with flame-colour swatch, common compounds used in labs, line spectra, approximate detection limits and everyday uses (street lamps, fireworks colouring, medical tracers).
Privacy first
Flame Detective does not collect personal data — everything stays on your device, with no third-party tracking or advertising SDKs. Read the full Privacy Policy.
Support
Questions or feedback? Visit Support or email margonkark23@icloud.com.