optical activity


nounPhysical Chemistry.
  1. the ability of a substance to rotate the plane of polarization of plane-polarized light.

Origin of optical activity

1
First recorded in 1875–80

Words Nearby optical activity

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use optical activity in a sentence

  • What importance the question of optical activity of the lactic acid may assume is not definitely known.

    The Book of Cheese | Charles Thom and Walter Warner Fisk
  • The lyotrope series also influence the optical activity of gelatine sols and the double refraction of strained gels.

    Animal Proteins | Hugh Garner Bennett
  • The water used must be either distilled water or clear water which has been found to have no optical activity.

British Dictionary definitions for optical activity

optical activity

noun
  1. the ability of substances that are optical isomers to rotate the plane of polarization of a transmitted beam of plane-polarized light

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