This research documents the aims and the impact of a teaching experiment on how the absorption of light depends on the thickness of the absorbing medium. This teaching experiment is more specifically characterized as bringing to bear a "concept-driven interactive pathway". It is designed to make students analyse the absorption of light by a medium as a selective multiplication (i.e. one depending on the wavelength) of the intensity by a factor smaller than one. Six teaching interviews conducted with fourth-year university students were recorded, transcribed and coded. Their analysis led us to evaluate the importance of the main obstacle expected, that is, of restricting the interpretation of absorption/transmission phenomena to the idea of "less light", or, equivalently, of seeing a multiplication by a factor smaller than one as just a subtraction. The students' comments at the end of the interview introduce a discussion about the links between their intellectual satisfaction, critical attitude and comprehension of the topic.