Etymology

van der Waals force

Today it means: The relatively weak attraction between neutral atoms and molecules arising from polarization induced in each particle by the presence of other particles. Full definition →

Dutch van der Waals
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The story

  1. Dutch · derived fromvan der Waals
  2. English todayvan der Waals force

From van der Waals + force. From Dutch van der Waals. from Johannes Diderik van der Waals, who first described them.

Words from the same roots

Dutchvan der Waals all →

van der WaalsVanderwaals

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.