Sunday, February 17, 2013

word of the day: actinometer

The word of the day is actinometer:


1. Originally: an instrument for measuring the heating power of the sun's radiation. Later more widely: one for measuring the intensity of solar radiation (cf. actinograph n. 1).First invented by Sir John Herschel (reported in Edinb. Jrnl. Sci. (1825) 3 107).
 2. Photogr. An apparatus by which light intensity (and hence an appropriate exposure time) can be estimated from the time taken for a piece of sensitized paper to darken to a standard shade. Now hist. 
3. Any instrument for measuring the intensity of light in or near the visible range; (also) a chemical system that measures or counts the number of photons in a beam of light. (OED)


"The quantum yield for the initial disappearance of diazirine (spectrophotometric determination), based on ferrioxalate actinometry, is 2.0 ± 0.5."

 - Michael J. Amrich and Jerry A. Bell, "Photoisomerization of Diazirine", Journal of the American Chemical Society 86:292 (January 20, 1964)

No comments: