if a few drops of hot water on the outside of the hot water syringe used to dispense the 5.00 ml sample into the calorimeter well for the kcal determination fell into the well, how would this affect the final maximum temperature observed, tfinal?

Vander waals forces are inter molecular bonds that exist within molecules of the same substance. a water molecule is made up of oxygen and hydrogen atoms which share electrons between each other. the vander waals forces are forces that exist between multitude of different  molecules of water. dipole dipole forces is the type of vander waals force that exist in water. the oxygen atom which is more electronegative pulls the shared electron closer to itself thus generating a partial negative charge while the hydrogen acquire a partial positive charge. these two different charges causes attraction to occur in water molecules.