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
Solid of revolution the curves of and and the lines and about the -axis is given by If (e.g. revolving an area between curve and -axis), this reduces to: The method can be visualized by considering a thin vertical rectangle at with height , and revolving it about the -axis; it forms a cylindrical shell. The lateral surface area of a cylinder is , where is the radius (in this case ), and is the height (in this case ). Summing up all of the surface areas along the interval gives the total volume. When a curve is defined by its parametric form