ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Logan plot

Okay kiddo, so let's talk about Logan plots! Have you ever seen a graph before? A graph is like a picture that shows how two things are related to each other. For example, a graph might show how much money a lemonade stand makes depending on how many cups of lemonade they sell.

A Logan plot is a special kind of graph that shows how much light is absorbed by different materials. We use Logan plots to help us understand how well a material can be used for things like blocking out light or making things darker.

Now, let's imagine that we are exploring a cave with a flashlight. When we aim the flashlight at a surface in the cave, some of the light will be absorbed by that surface and some of it will bounce back towards us. How much light is absorbed depends on the material of the surface. If we shine the flashlight on a white wall, most of the light will bounce back towards us because white reflects a lot of light. But if we shine the flashlight on a black wall, very little light will bounce back towards us because black absorbs most of the light.

So, when we are studying Logan plots, we are interested in seeing how much light is absorbed by different materials. We put the materials into a special machine that measures how much light gets through them. Then, we plot the results on a Logan plot. The plot looks like a curved line that starts off steep and then gets flatter as it goes towards the right.

The steep part of the line shows us how much light is absorbed by the material when the light is not very intense. The flatter part of the line shows us how much light is absorbed when the light is very intense. We use Logan plots because they help us understand how a material might behave in different situations. For example, if we use a material with a steeper slope at low light levels, it might be good for blocking out light in a room that isn't very bright. But if we use a material with a flatter slope at high light levels, it might be good for blocking out the intense light of the sun on a hot day.

So, that's the basics of what Logan plots are all about. In short, they are special graphs that help us understand how much light is absorbed by different materials. Pretty cool, huh?