Absorption Coefficient
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Related to Absorption Coefficient: sound absorption coefficient, molar 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.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Absorption Coefficient
(kv), 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-kvI
In the case of 1/10, the law is written
I = I010-kvI
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.
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.