Question

In Van der wall's equation: (p + q/v²) (v -b) = RT, what are the dimensions of a and b? Here, p is pressure, V is volume, T is temperature and R is gas constants.

Answer 1

(p + a/V²) (v -b) = RT

As pressure can be added only to pressure, therefore, a/V2 represents pressure, p.

Again, from the volume V, we can subtract only the volume. Therefore b must be representing volume only,i.e.,

or b = V = [L³] = [M⁰L³T⁰].