Turbidity
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turbidity
[tər′bid·əd·ē] (analytical chemistry)
Measure of the clarity of an otherwise clear liquid by using colorimetric scales.
Cloudy or hazy appearance in a naturally clear liquid caused by a suspension of colloidal liquid droplets or fine solids.
(astronomy)
The formation of disks centered on stars in long-exposure photographs as a result of light scattering by grains in the emulsion.
(meteorology)
Any condition of the atmosphere which reduces its transparency to radiation, especially to visible radiation.
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 It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Turbidity
the capacity of an optically nonuniform medium to scatter light passing through it (see). The extinction coefficient is a quantitative characterization of turbidity and is given by the equation.
τ ═ (l/I) ln (I0/I)
where I0 and I are the intensities of a light beam before and after passage through a layer of the medium of thickness l. Turbidity is determined by methods of nephelometry and turbidimetry.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.