10-degree optical attenuation

Attenuation coefficient

SummaryNapierian and decadic attenuation coefficientsOverviewBeer–Lambert lawMathematical definitionsAbsorption and scattering coefficientsExpression in terms of density and cross sectionMass attenuation, absorption, and scattering coefficients

Engineering applications often express attenuation in the logarithmic units of decibels, or "dB", where 10 dB represents attenuation by a factor of 10. The units for attenuation coefficient are thus dB/m (or, in general, dB per unit distance). Note that in logarithmic units such as dB, the attenuation is a linear function of distance, rather than exponential. This has the advantage that the result of multiple attenuation layers can be found by simply adding up the dB loss for each individual passage. However