Signal-to-noise ratio (Given the power of both signal and noise)
Formula
Psignal
average power of signal (meaningful information)
Pnoise
average power of the background noise (unwanted signal)
Formula description
One of the most important components of analytical chemistry is maximizing the desired signal while minimizing the associated noise. The analytical figure of merit is known as the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N or SNR), which is defined as the power ratio between a signal (meaningful information) and the background noise (unwanted signal).