It is named after Johannes Diderik van der Waals, winner of the 1910 Nobel Prize in Physics, as he was the first to recognise that atoms were not simply points and to demonstrate the physical consequences of their size through the van der Waals equation of state.
Det er opkaldt efter Johannes Diderik van der Waals, der vandt Nobelprisen i fysik i 1910, da han var den første til at indse at atomer ikke er simple punkter og for at demonstrere de fysiske konsekvenser af deres størrelse via Van der Waals ligning.