Van der Waals surface research use of a model showing the van der Waals surfaces of molecules. Related to the title concept are the ideas of a "van der Waals volume", V, and a "van der Waals surface area," abbreviated variously as A, vdWSA, VSA, and WSA. A van der Waals surface area is an abstract conception of the surface area of atoms or molecules from a mathematical estimation, either computing it from first principles or by integrating over a corresponding van der Waals volume. In simplest case, for a spherical monatomic gas, it is simply the computed surface area of a sphere of
Surface area a certain class of surfaces that satisfies several natural requirements. The most fundamental property of the surface area is its additivity: "the area of the whole is the sum of the areas of the parts". More rigorously, if a surface "S" is a union of finitely many pieces "S", …, "S" which do not overlap except at their boundaries, then Surface areas of flat polygonal shapes must agree with their geometrically defined area. Since surface area is a geometric notion, areas of congruent surfaces must be the same and the area must depend only on the shape of the surface,