The Acorn Area is designed to measure the surface area of particles dispersed in liquids. It is really a time domain nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer (NMR) that measures T1 or T2 relaxation times of the dispersion samples and from those data determines the particle surface area. The relaxation time of the fluid on the surface of the particle is different from that of the bulk fluid, and by observing the change in the mean relaxation time of the dispersion from the pure liquid, the surface area of the dispersion sample can be determined.