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The van der Waals Equation
In 1873, a little over two decades after the formulation of the first and second laws of
thermodynamics, van der Waals in Leiden published a thesis entitled The Continuity
of the Gaseous and Liquid States. He introduced the now famous van der Waals
equation in that work. This equation has had a great impact on our understanding
of phases and their equilibria, apart from being a much more succesful description
of the gaseous phase than the ideal gas law. This came nearly two centuries after
Boyle’s law and a century after Charles’s law.
This work also marked a transition from purely thermodynamic treatments to ones
invoki