Using a remote control to determine the infrared absorption coefficient in water

Abstract

In this work, we present a simple and low cost experiment designed to determine the infrared water absorption coefficient. We used a TV remote control as a point source of infrared light. The intensity after passing the light through different heights of a water column is measured with a solar cell connected to a speaker. The recorded signal, captured with a smartphone sound recorder, provides a practical demonstration of the Beer Lambert law. The collected data were fitted to the theoretical model, obtaining a very good agreement between the value of the water absorption coefficient obtained experimentally and that reported in the literature.