Johannes Diderik van der Waals
Johannes Diderik van der Waals (23 November 1837 – 8 March 1923) was a Dutch theoretical physicist who, in his 1873 doctoral thesis, proposed an equation of state accounting for the size of molecules and the attractive forces between them, showing that gas and liquid are continuous states of the same matter. He also formulated the law of corresponding states and received the 1910 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Major contributions
- Proposed the van der Waals equation (1873), (p + a/V²)(V − b) = RT, the first equation of state to describe both gases and liquids and predict a critical point
- Argued for the continuity of the gaseous and liquid states, supporting Thomas Andrews's 1869 experiments on carbon dioxide near its critical point
- Formulated the law of corresponding states (1880): in reduced variables, many fluids follow a common equation of state
- Developed a theory of binary mixtures (1890) and of capillarity based on a continuous density profile at interfaces (1893)
- Introduced the idea of weak intermolecular attraction now called van der Waals forces, central to chemistry, biology and materials science
Named concepts
| Concept | Statement | Codex page |
|---|---|---|
| Van der Waals equation | (p + a/V²)(V − b) = RT | View entry |
| Van der Waals forces | Weak attractions between neutral molecules | View entry |
| Law of corresponding states | Universal behaviour in reduced variables | View entry |
Career
Van der Waals was born in Leiden, the eldest of ten children of a carpenter. Lacking the classical languages then required for university degrees, he worked as a schoolteacher while attending lectures at Leiden; a change in the law in 1863 allowed him to complete formal studies, and he received his doctorate in 1873 with the thesis Over de Continuïteit van den Gas- en Vloeistoftoestand. James Clerk Maxwell reviewed it in Nature in 1874, noting that it had made the author known among leading physicists.
In 1877 he became the first professor of physics at the newly established University of Amsterdam, where he remained until 1908. He was a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1910.
Key publications
- van der Waals, J.D. (1873). Over de Continuïteit van den Gas- en Vloeistoftoestand. Leiden: Sijthoff.
- van der Waals, J.D. (1880). “Onderzoekingen omtrent de overeenstemmende eigenschappen der normale verzadigden-damp- en vloeistoflijnen.” Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, 20.
- Maxwell, J.C. (1874). “Van der Waals on the Continuity of the Gaseous and Liquid States.” Nature, 10, 477–480 (review).
Nobel Prize
Van der Waals received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1910 “for his work on the equation of state for gases and liquids”.
Historical context
Van der Waals worked when the existence of molecules was still disputed; his theory assumed molecules with size and mutual attraction, and its success was indirect evidence for them (see Ludwig Boltzmann). The law of corresponding states guided his compatriot Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, who liquefied helium in 1908. Although quantitatively superseded, his equation remains the standard teaching model for real fluids and phase transitions, and mean-field ideas descended from it shaped later theories of critical phenomena (see Equipartition Theorem for the contemporary debate over molecular theory).
Sources
- The Nobel Foundation (1910). The Nobel Prize in Physics 1910. nobelprize.org.
- Kipnis, A.Ya., Yavelov, B.E., Rowlinson, J.S. (1996). Van der Waals and Molecular Science. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- van der Waals, J.D. (1873). Doctoral thesis, Leiden.