Gamma Ray Penetration Of Lead essays

Gamma Ray Penetration Of Lead essays The amount of radiation that occurs to the matter depends on two things: what radiation is used. what material is used for absorption. There are three types of radiation; they are Alpha, Beta and Gamma. Gamma radiation has two types of radiation, nuclear which is dangerous and electromagnetic which is not dangerous. Gamma rays are the opposite of alpha particles in a way. They penetrate a long way into materials without being stopped. This means they are weakly ionising because they bend to pass through rather than colliding with atoms. Eventually they hit something and do damage. The only thing that block Gamma rays is thick lead and concrete. In the experiment I will be using lead. In 1896 Henri Becquerel was investigating materials, which glow when placed in an x-ray beam. Curious to find out if strong sunlight caused uranium salt to glow. It was clear that uranium salts emit penetrating radiation, which can blacken photographic film. More interested in x-rays, Becquerel passed the challenge of further investigations on to one of his students, Marie Curie. Within a few years, Marie Curie discovered other elements such as thorium, which are radioactive. One of these elements, radium, was found to be over 1 million time more radioactive than uranium. Photographic film can be used to detect radiation. Radiation was first discovered by accident when Henri Becquerel left some uranium on some photographic plates, which became fogged by it. These days photographic film is useful way of detecting radiation. Workers in the nuclear industry or those using x-ray equipment such as dentists and radiographers wear little blue badges which have a little bit of photographic film in them. The film is checked every now and then to see if it has become fogged too quickly, which would mean the person was getting to much radiation. The nature of radioactive radiation. Alpha radiation was s...