Question

Physical significance of a and b in vander wall gas equation

Answer 1

The van der Waals' equation can be written as follows: Significance of van der Waals' parameter 'a': It is the measure of the magnitude of attractive forces between the molecules of a gas. Larger the value of 'a', larger will be the intermolecular force of attraction.


The van der Waals equation of state approaches the ideal gas law PV=nRT as the values of these constants approach zero. The constant a provides a correction for the intermolecular forces. Constant b is a correction for finite molecular size and its value is the volume of one mole of the atoms or molecules