to longer scan times rather than to include more wavelengths as demonstrated in fig8 to achieve an optimal accuracy the noise level at different wavelengths has to be adjusted which might require different measurement times at certain wavelengths strictly speaking the work presented here was achieved by optimizing a 2 wavelength system and then optimizing a 4 wavelength system where 2 of the wavelengths were fixed at the optimized 2 wavelength system values whilst this is easier to display graphically preferably all 4 wavelengths would be permitted to vary in a global optimization process fortunately for the specific example presented here when all 4 wavelengths are permitted to vary the same optimal solution is found however this may not be true for all situations and a global optimization is preferred it is also understood that it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that the same approach for choosing optimal wavelengths can be applied to optical absorption spectroscopy in general for example in other embodiments of the present invention the method of the present invention is also used for choosing the optimal wavelengths for analyzing the components of paints pharmaceutical products food grain or any other turbid media it is also understood that the proposed method applies both to the analysis of absolute chromophore concentrations as to their changes or relative concentrations while the invention has been described in connection with specific embodiments thereof it will be understood that it is capable of further modifications and this application.