van der Waals Phase Behavior 

Thanks for the comment, that's very kind of you

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it

Yes, there is so much attention paid to the phase loops of the vdW isotherms that it can be easy to lose track of the fact that they're just a model artifact not something real.

Well, then I'm doubly pleased to have been of service.

You're welcome, glad to help

You're absolutely correct, thanks for pointing out that mistake. The equation is correct in the vdW Equation of State video (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-z7mYTbk391U.html), but I wrote the sign wrong here, as you pointed out. I'll pin your comment so that other viewers hopefully see the correction, and will work on editing / re-recording this one.

No thanks are necessary, but I appreciate your kind comment

Thanks, glad to hear it

My pleasure

Thanks! If you're happy with a quantum-first presentation of topics, then the book by McQuarrie and Simon is quite good, and certainly suitable for self-study. Unfortunately, I don't know of a great book that follows the Boltzmann-first order of topics that I present here. I'm working on one of my own, but it is not available just yet.

The basic idea is: Pick a P_sat. Find the roots V(P,T) that solve the vdW equation. There will be 3 of them if you are in the coexistence region. Then obtain the areas of the two phase loops: ∫P(V) dV from V₁ to V₂ and from V₂ to V₃. At the correct P_sat, these areas will be equal. You can change your guessed value of P_sat until this equal-area condition is met.

I am on the other side of the glass, but I'm writing forwards! The computer reverses the image. More details: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YmvJVkyJbLc.html