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So who was this Van der Waals
person anyway?
Van der Waals' greatest scientific achievement was winning
the coveted Nobel Prize for Physics in 1910. The prize was awarded for
'his work on the equation of state for gases and liquids'. He basically
came up with an equation which could be used as a modification of the ideal gas
equation, to take account of the intermolecular forces between gas molecules:
 or
 when divided through by n.
Not bad for someone who had to study maths and physics in his
spare time, as his lack of qualifications in the classics disqualified him from
academic exams! Despite these restrictions on his academic aspirations Van der
Waals earned teaching certificates at University in Leyden. He spent
eleven years as a secondary school teacher before 1873 when the restrictions
were lifted, and he was allowed to obtain his doctorate. This was entitled
'On the continuity of the gas and liquid state', and introduced the famous
equations shown above.
A mere three years later Van der Waals was appointed the
first Professor of Physics at the new university, the Athenaeum Illustre of
Amsterdam. Nevertheless, it was a further thirty-four years before he was
awarded the Nobel Prize for his doctorate.
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