Model Relating to Van Der Waals' Law in Thermodynamics, by Richard P. Baker, Baker #249

Model Relating to Van Der Waals' Law in Thermodynamics, by Richard P. Baker, Baker #249

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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
Object Name
geometric model
date made
ca 1905-1935
maker
Baker, Richard P.
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
ID Number
MA.211257.044
accession number
211257
catalog number
211257.044
Credit Line
Gift of Frances E. Baker
subject
Mathematics
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Science & Mathematics
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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