You can define any custom material, as long as you know its composition data and density. When choosing the material, choose “Specify material...” option and define your custom material. You will be prompted to save it to disk, if you want, to be able to re-use it later.

The reason Angle does not offer “soil” as a typical source material is because of the diversity of soil types, the composition of which varies considerably – so it is up to the user to define it.

The safest way is to have dry samples, without any humidity. In the case of humidity, the quantity (in %) should be known and simply entered in the material composition (choose: mixture of compounds, with water being one of them with appropriate mass percentage).

Depending on the material, it can be defined in three ways: as a mixture of elements (you have to define element symbols and mass percentages), as a compound (you have to define element symbols and number of atoms) and as mixture of compounds (you have to define each compound separately and the mass share percentage). In either case you have to define the density of your material and the material name. You can save the material to disk for later use.

No, if you previously saved your material to disk. Simply click on “Specify material...” when choosing the material, click the “Load saved material” button and select the material you saved.

Another, more flexible way to select the previously saved material is by using the pop-up menu, which you can open by clicking the “Source material” label in the “Source” group of the main window. Choose the option “Saved materials” and select the previously saved material from the sub-menu.

The more accurately you know it, the better, because this information is input for gamma-attenuation calculations. However, minor constituents (e.g. trace elements) in the material do not contribute considerably in this sense and can be easily omitted if not known. In any particular case, you may verify (by trial calculations) how the absence/presence or concentration variation of a given component is reflected in your final result.

When entering material composition, Angle requires that the mass sum of the constituents is 100%. If you are omitting some minor constituents, the sum might come to (a bit) less than 100%. In that case, it is advisable to add the difference to the major constituents you entered, proportionally to their presence.

You simply measure the mass and the volume, and the density is the ratio of the two. Pay attention to enter density in g/cm³ when defining the material(s) in Angle.

Yes. In Angle 5 you can enter the compound using the chemical formula – simply type it in the “Chemical formula” box and Angle will automatically break it down to element symbols and the numbers of atoms.