Object Details
- Description
- Johannes D. van der Waals (1837-1923), a Dutch teacher, university professor, and theoretical physicist, derived modifications of the law of thermodynamics to account for interactions between molecules of liquids and gases. His research would bring him the Nobel Prize in physics in 1910. In this model, Richard P. Baker, a member of the mathematics department at the University of Iowa, plotted the thermal properties of a substance following van der Waals’s theory.
- A tag on the model reads: No. 249 (/) Van der Waals' law
- This is one of several models of thermodynamic surfaces made by Baker.
- References:
- R.P. Baker, Mathematical Models, Iowa City, Iowa, 1931, p. 18.
- Stephen G. Brush, The Kind of Motion We Call Heat, Amsterdam: North Holland, 1976.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- maker
- Baker, Richard P.
- date made
- ca 1905-1935
- Credit Line
- Gift of Frances E. Baker
- Physical Description
- plaster (overall material)
- wood (overall material)
- metal (overall material)
- brown (overall color)
- blue (overall color)
- grey (overall color)
- black (overall color)
- bolted and screwed (overall production method/technique)
- Measurements
- average spatial: 12 cm x 31.1 cm x 31.6 cm; 4 23/32 in x 12 1/4 in x 12 7/16 in
- Object Name
- geometric model
