A variational technique which is based on two different inequalities for the Helmholtz free energies is used to calculate the equilibrium thermodynamic properties of simple fluids. A system with hardhyphen;sphere potential function is used as the reference system. Helmholtz free energy of the original system is calculated by variation around the Helmholtz free energy of the reference system, and the other thermodynamic properties are calculated from free energy. By choosing a hardhyphen;sphere reference system, it is possible to calculate the equilibrium thermodynamic properties of fluids from very low densities to densities close to solid, and from high temperatures in the gas phase to low temperatures in the liquid phase, in the ranges where experimental and machinehyphen;calculated data are available. It is shown that the present variational technique is a better approach to the prediction of the equilibrium thermodynamic properties of liquids and vaporndash;liquid phase transition than any other approach so far developed. While the variational calculation based on a hardhyphen;sphere reference system does not predict the liquidndash;solid phase transition, it is argued that this might be due to the neglect of the orientation, or ordering in the formulation of the working inequality for fluids.
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