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opacity

Property of an object or substance that is impervious to light

EntityQ691914

Also known as opaque · opaqueness

Subclass of: quality of interaction of a substance with electromagnetic radiation

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Opacity is the measure of impenetrability to electromagnetic or other kinds of radiation, especially visible light. In radiative transfer, it describes the absorption and scattering of radiation in a medium, such as a plasma, dielectric, shielding material, glass, etc. An opaque object is neither transparent nor translucent. When light strikes an interface between two substances, in general, some may be reflected, some absorbed, some scattered, and the rest transmitted.

Overview

All data

10 statements · 30% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Defining formula: I(x) = I_0 e^{-\kappa_\nu \rho x}

On other databases

10 identifiers linking opacity across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

30%

externally sourced

Source last edited September 20, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). opacity (Q691914). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/opacity-Q691914