The van der Waals equation corrects the ideal gas equation for
- A. the mass of the container
- B. the finite volume of the molecules and the attractive forces between them
- C. the speed of the molecules
- D. the colour of the gas
Explanation
The constant b subtracts the volume actually occupied by the molecules and the constant a adds back the pressure lost to intermolecular attraction, so the equation describes real gases far better. Larger values of a and b indicate a gas that departs further from ideality. As pressure falls towards zero the corrections vanish and the ideal equation is recovered.
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