UNI Plant Physiology Measuring Light Absorbance UNI Plant Physiology Spring 2005
UNI Plant Physiology Water Red light passes through Blue NOT absorbed Green light passes through Blue light passes through Green NOT absorbed Red NOT absorbed
UNI Plant Physiology Red Dye Solution Red light passes through Green light passes through Blue light doesn’t pass through Red NOT absorbed Green NOT absorbed Blue IS absorbed
UNI Plant Physiology Inside the Spectrophotometer Light source Light beam Wavelength selector Measurement beam Spec tube holder Spec tube with solution Light detector measures how much light gets through tube
UNI Plant Physiology No dye (blank) Absorbance of Dye Solution Absorbance = 0 (set to 0) Dilute dye Concentrated dye Absorbance low Absorbance high IN THE SPEC
UNI Plant Physiology Absorbance and Concentration Right color (wavelength) for the dye Blank has zero absorbance (we set it) Low concentrations have low absorbances High concentrations have high absorbances You can see this with your eye with the right color light
UNI Plant Physiology Absorbance of Dye Solution IN WHITE ROOM LIGHT, SEEN BY YOUR EYES LOTS OF LIGHT GETS THROUGH THE RED DYE, JUST NOT BLUE LIGHT
UNI Plant Physiology Why does the spec say the tube is dark, but our eyes say it is light? The spec is only looking at the blue light that passes through (not much) Your eye sees all the colors that pass through (lots of red and green, though not much blue)