Under the direction of Dr. Russ Miller Ph.D., Dr. Tom Furlani Ph.D., and Dr. David Kofke Ph.D., I determined a viable set of data that approximated the qualities of an ideal gas molecule. My overall objective was to determine whether or not the square well would follow the existing gas laws of nature. Once I realized that this was indeed not the case, I aimed to determine how closely these potentials approximated van der Waals intermolecular forces and in what ways they deviated from the behavior of the hard spheres. By comparing this type of molecule to the hard sphere, essentially, an ideal gas prototype, I was able to compare and contrast the results of each series of experiments to determine a conclusion. The hard sphere potential resembles an ideal gas in construction.
Real gases behave most like ideal gases under high temperature and low-pressure conditions.
The hard sphere is also the simplest interparticle potential. At this intermolecular distance s , the potential energy rises to infinity. The two molecules come into contact and as their centers are now 2R apart, they can not come any closer to one another. One might envision two small toy cars traveling down a set length of track. The centers of square well molecules, unlike the hard spheres, have the ability to come closer than 2R in distance.