Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The ratio of absorbed to incident radiation.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a measure of the rate of decrease in the intensity of electromagnetic radiation (as light) as it passes through a given substance; the fraction of incident radiant energy absorbed per unit mass or thickness of an absorber

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[absorpt(ion) + –ance.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Circa 20th century, from absorption +‎ -ance.

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Examples

  • Certainly, over the tropical midday deep oceans, the ocean absorptance must be in teh range of 97-98%, since the near normal incident radiation simply goes on down till something absorbs it.

    Archive 2008-02-01 EliRabett 2008

  • So the 70 % of the earth surface that is ocean must have a fairly good grey body absorption spectrum with an absorptance of over 95%.

    Archive 2008-02-01 EliRabett 2008

  • Two things to keep clear when thinking about emissivity, it is commonly under stood that emissivity = absorptance.

    The Minnesota Dam Nation « Climate Audit 2007

  • The anti-oxidant potency of krill oil is such that when compared to fish oil in tems of ORAC Oxygen radical absorptance capacity values it was found to be 48 times more potent than fish oil.

    Michael R. Eades, M.D.: Why krill oil? 2006

  • In addition, the absorptance of the pots appears less than optimal.

    Chapter 8 1990

  • Acktar Black ™ coatings have an absorptance of ~ 99. 9% at incident angles of up to 20 degrees and ~ 99. 5% at incident angles of up to 60 degrees and have thickness of only few microns.

    physicsworld.com: all content 2010

  • Is the absorptance a background number which I cannot see?

    All Discussion Groups: Message List - root 2009

  • Is the absorptance a background number which I cannot see?

    All Discussion Groups: Message List - root 2009

  • We were cocksure to cheese gift to panoply onwards but the tongueless overblown us from strindberg the absorptance, so we get an properly schizoid in bastnaesite.

    Rational Review 2009

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