A saccharimeter is an instrument for measuring the concentration of sugar solutions. This is commonly achieved using a measurement of

refractive index In optics, the refractive index (or refraction index) of an optical medium is a dimensionless number that gives the indication of the light bending ability of that medium. The refractive index determines how much the path of light is bent, o ...

(

refractometer A refractometer is a laboratory or field device for the measurement of an index of refraction (refractometry). The index of refraction is calculated from the observed refraction angle using Snell's law. For mixtures, the index of refraction then ...

) or the angle of rotation of

polarization Polarization or polarisation may refer to: Mathematics *Polarization of an Abelian variety, in the mathematics of complex manifolds *Polarization of an algebraic form, a technique for expressing a homogeneous polynomial in a simpler fashion by ...

of optically active sugars (

polarimeter A polarimeter is a scientific instrument used to measure the angle of rotation caused by passing polarized light through an optically active substance.food processing Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing includes many forms of processing foods, from grinding grain to make raw flour to home cooking to complex industr ...

industries,

brewing Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brewer, ...

, and the distilled alcoholic drinks industry. {{Gallery , align=center , File:Saccharimeter Zucker-Museum.jpg, A saccharimeter at the Sugar Museum (Berlin) , File:Polarimeter Saccharimeter-UNIL 603.867-IMG 2052-black.jpg, Saccharimeter at the EPFL Physics Museum , File:Soleil saccharimeter-IMG 6954-gradient.jpg,

Soleil SOLEIL ("Sun" in French) is a synchrotron facility near Paris, France. It performed its first acceleration of electrons on May 14, 2006. The name ''SOLEIL'' is a backronym for ''Source optimisée de lumière d’énergie intermédiaire du LURE' ...

saccharimeter on display at the Palais de la Découverte

External links

Historical

Bates Type Saccharimeter NIST Museum object
Measuring instruments