Definition

A logarithmic measure of how much light gets gobbled up when passing through a substance, because apparently scientists couldn't just say "darkness level." This optical density metric is crucial in spectroscopy, where researchers measure exactly how opaque your samples are being today. Think of it as the substance's light-blocking scorecard.

Example Usage

The lab technician adjusted the spectrophotometer to measure the absorbance of the solution at 280 nanometers.

Source: Scientific terminology

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