Radiation as scary as it sounds, do you really understand it

When a material is radioactive, it can give off energy in the form of particles or electromagnetic waves. These waves could be in any other area of the electromagnetic spectrum. Technically, the Wi-Fi access point in your home is a targeted source of radiation,digital nitrate tester as is the light bulb in the ceiling at the same time. Further, because of the temperature of our bodies, even human individuals are a source of radiation in the infrared spectrum.

What is commonly referred to as "radiation" is actually a specific type of radiation - ionizing radiation. When an object emits ionizing radiation, it emits enough energy to cause an atom to release an electron when it interacts with other matter.radiation detectors The electron is then free to interact with other atoms or just roam into empty space. But whatever the electron does, once it leaves the original atom, it is called ionized. There are 4 types of ionizing radiation: alpha, beta, gamma, and neutron radiation.

Alpha radiation

Dating back to 1896, when no one really understood radiation, people didn't know if it was a particle or some kind of electromagnetic wave. So scientists decided to use the term "ray" to describe radiation, which is how alpha and gamma rays got their names.

But alpha particles are not waves. They are actually electrically charged particles.geiger counter handheld Alpha particles are made up of two protons and two neutrons. This means that alpha particles are helium atoms without electrons.

How can you tell that the radiation is alpha radiation and not some other type of radiation? The way is that alpha particles are easily blocked by something as thin as paper. In other words, a very small amount of matter can shield it.

And then there's the fact that one thing that can block alpha particles is human skin. As a result, alpha radiation is often thought of as the type of radiation data that carries the least amount of harm to society.

Beta particles

Alpha particles are easily stopped. In contrast, Beytagh and gamma particles can pass through a certain amount of metal shielding, penetrate further into the material, and have a much smaller mass.

Beta particles are actually electrons, the negatively charged elementary particles. alpha particles have more than 7,000 times the mass of beta particles. This means that very low mass beta particles can be emitted at very high speeds, penetrating objects including the human body.

Gamma rays

Gamma rays are rays, not particles. They are a third type of radiation, an electromagnetic wave, like visible light.

The wavelength of light that people can see with their eyes is between 400 and 700 nanometers, while gamma rays have a much smaller wavelength. A typical gamma ray may have a wavelength of 100 picometers.

Because the different wavelengths are small and the frequencies are high, gamma rays can interact with material culture at a very high energy level. They can also penetrate quite deeply into most research materials, so we usually need to perform a lot of lead to stop this radiation.

Neutron Radiation

Neutron radiation is not exactly the same. Neutrons are emitted from radioactive nuclei. This is the fourth type of radiation.

Neutrons have no electrical charge and can easily pass through many materials, which makes shielding them quite difficult. The key to protecting an object or person from neutron radiation is to somehow slow down the particle. It turns out that one can do this with hydrogen. When a neutron interacts with a hydrogen-containing molecule (such as water or a hydrocarbon), the collision slows the neutron down slightly. The more collisions there are, the slower the neutron slows down. Eventually it will become so slow that nothing will go wrong.

How can radiation be monitored?

A variety of methods can be used to detect all these types of radiation. Most people are familiar with Geiger counters.

When alpha, beta, or gamma rays pass through a gas in a tube, they ionize atoms and produce free electrons. The electrons are then attracted to the positive voltage in the center wire. As the electron moves toward the wire, it accelerates and collides with other gas molecules, creating more free electrons. This is called an "electron avalanche" because one electron can produce more electrons.

Once we have this electronic information reaching the wire, an impact current develops between them, which is amplified and sent to the audio input. This amplified avalanche of electrons causes the Geiger counter to make the classic "click" sound.

Another method of detecting radiation is scintillation. This is a special crystal or plastic material. When any of the four types of radiation passes through the scintillator, a small amount of visible light is produced. Only a photomultiplier device is needed to detect these tiny rays of light to detect radiation.

In fact, people may have a radiation detector in their pocket. People can use their smartphones to detect gamma rays and x-rays. The camera of a cell phone has an image sensor. When visible light hits different parts of the sensor, complex electrical signals are generated, and that data is then turned into a digital photo. But image sensors can also be activated by gamma and x-rays, so all it takes is some special software and something (like black tape) to block the visible light, and people might be able to detect the rays with their cameras.