Johannes Diderik van der Waals was born on 23 November 1837 in Leiden. A Dutch physicist, Van der Waals is best known for his equation of state for gases and liquids, which accounted for the size of molecules and the attractive forces between them, now called van der Waals forces. His doctoral thesis, defended in 1873 when he was a school teacher with no university degree, explained why gases condense into liquids at certain critical temperatures and pressures. His ideas helped scientists such as James Dewar and Heike Kamerlingh Onnes to liquefy gases like hydrogen and helium. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1910 and was professor at the University of Amsterdam.
Before and after
- 7 April 1837Publication of The Little Mermaid
- from 6 November 1837 to 10 November 1838Lower Canada Rebellion
- 7 November 1837Earthquake in Valdivia, Chile
- from 13 November 1837 to 9 September 1838First Herat War
- 23 November 1837Birth of Johannes Diderik van der Waals
- 24 December 1837Birth of Empress Elisabeth of Austria
- 1838Founding of Duke University
- 1838Founding of The Times of India
- 1838Friedrich Bessel measures the first stellar parallax
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The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.