Absorption Coefficient

absorption coefficient

[əb′sȯrp·shən ‚kō·ə′fish·ənt]

Also known as absorption factor; absorption ratio; coefficient of absorption.

(acoustics)

The ratio of the sound energy absorbed by a surface of a medium or material to the sound energy incident on the surface.

(physics)

If a flux through a material decreases with distance x in proportion to e^-ax, then a is called the absorption coefficient.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

sound absorption coefficient,

a The fraction of the sound energy (incident at random angles on a surface) which is absorbed or otherwise not reflected by the surface.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Absorption Coefficient

 

(k_v), the inverse of the distance at which a monochromatic radiation flux that has frequency ν and forms a parallel beam is attenuated—owing to absorption in a substance—to 1/e (natural absorption coefficient) or 1/10 (decimal absorption coefficient) of its incident intensity. In the case of 1/e, the Bouguer-Lambert law is written

I = I₀e^-k_vI

In the case of 1/10, the law is written

I = I₀10^-k_vI

The absorption coefficient is measured in cm^-1 or m^-1, and it is traditionally called the absorption factor in spectrography and some other branches of applied optics.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.