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-to-volume ratio very large surface area for a given volume. The surface-area-to-volume ratio has physical dimension L (inverse length) and is therefore expressed in units of inverse distance. As an example, a cube with sides of length 1 cm will have a surface area of 6 cm and a volume of 1 cm. The surface to volume ratio for this cube is thus For a given shape, SA:V is inversely proportional to size. A cube 2 cm on a side has a ratio of 3 cm, half that of a cube 1 cm on a side. Conversely, preserving SA:V as size increases