 Cooling in free expansion of a van der Waals gas

ID: cooling-in-free-expansion-of-a-van-der-waals-gas

For the classical monatomic caloric model, energy conservation in expansion from

V_{i}

V_{f}

gives

T_{f} - T_{i} = 2 a N (1/ V_{f} - 1/ V_{i}) / (3 k_{B})

. Attractions make the gas cool. The formula assumes homogeneous equilibrium states, not a two-phase coexistence state.

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