The primary purpose of the simulation is to teach the logic and thinking that form the foundation of an inorganic qualitative analysis laboratory and to teach students, by experience, the wealth and depth and beauty of inorganic materials chemistry. To achieve this, the simulation is designed to allow a student to enter a virtual inorganic qualitative analysis laboratory where they are free to make the choices and decisions that they would confront in an actual laboratory environment and, in turn, experience the resulting consequences.

To achieve this goal and to keep the simulation at a manageable size and complexity, a few assumptions and restrictions have been applied:

1. The cations are the nitrates and are dissolved in water to form a 0.02 M solution except for NH₄⁺, which is a 1 M solution.
2. Additional cations cannot be added to a test tube once a reagent has been added to a test tube.
3. The reagents have concentrations of 3 M for HNO₃, NaOH, and NH₃, 0.1 M for the Na₂S, 3% H₂O₂, and 1 M for the NaCl, Na₂SO₄, and Na₂CO₃ solutions.
4. The pH 4, pH 7, and pH 10 solutions are inert buffers and are added in sufficient quantity to set the pH of the solution to the indicated value.
5. Reagents are added in excess.
6. After decanting, precipitates are rinsed with an appropriate solution so the precipitate does not dissolve.