Turbidity | <p>Turbidimetry is an analytical technique that is used to measure the cloudiness or haziness of liquid samples.</p><p>For example, consider the differences in water from a tap and water from a muddy river. The water from the tap is colourless and clear, with a very low turbidity. On the other hand, a muddy river is brown and opaque and therefore has a high turbidity.</p><p>When we consider these two samples and what makes the water appear so different, we have to consider the suspended solids that affect the clarity of the water. Turbidity is a measure of clarity of a sample, rather than the measure of the amount of dissolved or suspended solids within a sample, which can be caused by inorganic sediment, bacteria or precipitates.</p><p>Turbidity is a great indicator of water quality, whether that be regarding the quality of drinking water or the quality of aquatic environments.</p><p>The best way to measure turbidity in a wide variety of samples is with a nephelometer, also known as a turbidity meter. Turbidity meters utilize a light and photo detector to measure light scatter, and read out in units of turbidity, such as nephelometric turbidity units (NTU) or formazin turbidity units (FTU).</p>