Talk:Absorbance
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[edit] Natural log or log base 10
"Outside the field of analytical chemistry, the absorbance is sometimes defined as the natural logarithm instead of the base-10 logarithm." is what is said in the article, but I cannot figure out if that means the logarithm depicted is base 10 or the natural logarithm. Logically, I don't see how 10 could appear in the nature of light and absorbance, so I think that it is the natural logarithm. I am going to change it to LN, but if thats not right, somebody correct me. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by EulerGamma (talk • contribs).
- I'm under the impression that the reason it is converted to a logarith, is so the numbers are easier to work with. The choice of of a natural log or a base 10 log would be determined by whether you prefer for work in powers of 10 or powers of e, and not based on any phsyical property of light. I think it makes more sense to express is as a log base 10 in this article, since the other articles relating to this one (optical density and transmittance) use log base 10.