Theorem of corresponding states
Teorema de los estados correspondientes
- Date
- c. 1873 · confidence medium
- Place
- Leiden, Netherlands
- Credited to
- Johannes Diderik van der Waals
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
States that, when compared at the same reduced temperature and pressure, all fluids following the Van der Waals equation show approximately the same compressibility factor, eliminating the constants specific to each substance.
What it led to
- General method for predicting the behaviour of real gases without experimental data for each substance
- Basis of thermodynamic diagrams and correlations used in chemical engineering
- Later extension by Guggenheim and others to systems near the critical point