ABSTRACT
The term ‘analysis’ as used in this book includes any measurement that provides information about the chemical composition of a sample. Depending on the application, this information could take various forms. For example:
the concentrations of certain elements or compounds in the sample;
the relative amounts (abundance ratio) of two or more isotopes of a particular element;
what proportion of an element occurs in a specific chemical form (e.g. how much of the sulphur present is in the form of sulphate and how much is sulphide).
