Path Length

Definition

In chemistry, path length refers to the distance that light travels through a sample in a spectrophotometer. It's usually measured in centimeters.

Related terms

Spectrophotometry:

This is an analytical method used to measure how much a chemical substance absorbs light by measuring the intensity of light as a beam of light passes through sample solution.

Absorbance:

This measures how much light is absorbed by a sample. In our forest analogy, this would be like how hard it is for you to see due to trees and fog on your path.

Sample Cell/Cuvette: This is where you put your sample in spectrophotometry. It determines the path length that light will travel. In our analogy, this could represent different paths or trails in our forest with varying lengths and thicknesses.