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
Volume element compute the area of a set "B" lying on the surface by computing the integral Here we will find the volume element on the surface that defines area in the usual sense. The Jacobian matrix of the mapping is with index "i" running from 1 to "n", and "j" running from 1 to 2. The Euclidean metric in the "n"-dimensional space induces a metric formula_34 on the set "U", with matrix elements The determinant of the metric is given by For a regular surface, this determinant is non-vanishing; equivalently, the Jacobian matrix has rank 2. Now consider a change of