Question

The term that corrects for the attractive forces present in a real gas in the van der Waals equation is:

• A. $nb$
• B. $\frac{a{n}^2}{V^2}$
• C. $-\frac{a{n}^2}{V^2}$
• D. $-nb$

Answer 1

The correct option is B $\frac{a{n}^2}{V^2}$

The term $\frac{a{n}^2}{V^2}$ represents pressure correction. It is a correction for the intermolecular attractions.
The term $nb$ represents volume correction. It is correction due to the fact that the volume occupied by the molecules becomes a considerable fraction of the total volume of the gas.