Absorption Coefficient

The Absorption coefficient ? is a property of a material. It defines the extent to which a material absorbs energy, for example that of sound waves or electromagnetic radiation. Wallace Sabine was a pioneer of this concept in acoustics and defined the unit of the Sabine. A Sabine is defined as a fraction of acoustic power absorbed by a 1m square of open window. In SI units, absorption coefficient is measured in inverse metres, and is represented by the Greek letter ?. In chemistry and biological sciences, the absorption coefficient is a measure of the solubility of a gas in a liquid measured as the volume of the gas (taken under standard conditions) that saturates a unit volume of the liquid.