Hi David Mueller, In Physical Chemistry Van der Waals interacions are defined as all type of forces between molecules (or parts of them) excluding covalent bonds and electrostatic interactions. So, you are right that the most common forces included into Van Der Waals are: interaction between permanent dipoles, interaction between permanent dipoles and dipoles induced by them, and interaction between apolar groups due to their polarizability.
This may appear in the next reference (IUPAC Glossary of terms): http://iupac.org/publications/pac/66/5/1077/ Regarding the subject that says "van der waals distance" this is the half of the distance of two non-covalent-bounded atoms. This specific distance I supposed it is due to the Van der Waals interactions, but maybe there are other causes. Best regards. -- --------------------------------------------------- Rubén Sánchez
