Johannes Diderik van der Waals is probably best known for the weak force between molecules that is named after him, but he is also known for the van der Waals equation of state of a gas, and the van der Waals radius of an atom.
Van der Waals was born in Leiden, Netherlands in 1837. His father was a carpenter and Johannes was not able to attend the kind of school that would lead to a university place. Initially he qualified as a primary school teacher but he studied in his spare time to become a high-school teacher of mathematics and physics. In 1865 he was appointed as a physics teacher and continued to study physics at the University of Leiden.
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