Exploring Beer’s Law (virtual)

Use the link below to launch a simulation where you can alter the properties involved in spectrophotometry and examine the Beer-Lambert Law. Increase and decrease the concentration slider in the simulation:

  1. What happens to the contents in the cuvette?
  2. How does this change the Transmittance and Absorbance readings?
  3. Click “variable” and use the slider. What happens to the readings when the Wavelength of the laser is a similar color as the solution in the cuvette?
  4. Consult a color wheel and find the color wavelength that is opposite of the color of the solution. Set the laser to this color using “variable” and the slider.
    1. What is the effect on Transmittance and Absorbance  with this color?
    2. Using the previous observations (using variable wavelength slider), how would you use the relationship on Transmittance/Absorbance to best measure the concentration of a solution?
Beer's Law Lab
Click on image above to begin Beer’s Law Simulation