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PRELUDE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2010

V. Adrian Parsegian
Affiliation:
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Maryland
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Summary

“How much does a ladybug weigh?” A straightforward question from a straightforward six-year old. I made a guess that seemed to satisfy. Thirty-five years later, I finally weighed a ladybug: 21 mg. I never doubted that she could walk on a ceiling or on the window where I caught her, but could she be holding on by the van derWaals forces about which I was writing? That 21 mg, plus a quick calculation, reassured me that these bugs might have learned some good physics a very long time ago. If so, what about other creatures? We are told that geckos might use these forces; their feet have hairy bottoms with contact areas like those of insects. They might put to good use forces whose appearance to us humans emerged from details in the pressures of gases, whose formulation resides in difficult theories, whose practicality is seen in paints and aerosols, and whose measurement requires delicate equipment.Were these same forces showing themselves to us during childhood summers?

The first clear evidence of forces between what were soon to be called molecules came from Johannes Diderik van der Waals' 1873 Ph.D. thesis formulation of the pressure p, volume V, and temperature T of dense gases.

Type
Chapter
Information
Van der Waals Forces
A Handbook for Biologists, Chemists, Engineers, and Physicists
, pp. 1 - 3
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

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  • PRELUDE
  • V. Adrian Parsegian, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Maryland
  • Book: Van der Waals Forces
  • Online publication: 08 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511614606.002
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  • PRELUDE
  • V. Adrian Parsegian, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Maryland
  • Book: Van der Waals Forces
  • Online publication: 08 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511614606.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • PRELUDE
  • V. Adrian Parsegian, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Maryland
  • Book: Van der Waals Forces
  • Online publication: 08 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511614606.002
Available formats
×