What Is Xray?

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X-rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation. The frequency range for X-ray are -8 through -10 Hz, because of their high frequency range, they are not visible to the human eye. They are used every day in medical offices around the world, and have revolutionized how we diagnose many medical aliments by obtaining images of bones, diseased tissue, and any foreign objects in the human body. In this review, I will explain when x-rays beams were first discovered, how the beam is created, and how x-rays beams are used in a medical office to see inside the human body. In 1895, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, professor of physics at the universities of Strasbourg (1876–79), Giessen (1879–88), Würzburg (1888–1900), and Munich (1900–20), was experimenting …show more content…
X-ray beams are used in many different ways in medical offices around the world mainly, they are used to take pictures of the inside of the human body. One characteristic of x-rays is that they can only pass through soft body tissue, and are absorbed only by dense body tissue. This allows a doctor to capture the inside bone structure of the body, and look for foreign objects such as metal, or diseased tissue. For example, dentist used x-rays, to diagnose a cavity in a tooth, or see if a patient needs a tooth pulled to make room for a new one. Surgeons also use x-rays to map out a surgery. During an x-ray, a radiographic film is used to capture the beams that pass through the body. The film is placed behind the area of the body that the doctor needs to analyze. The beams are absorbed by the dense material of the body, and passes through the soft tissue. When the beams that pass through the soft tissue, hit the film the X-ray photons react with the ionized crystals on the film darkening the exposed area, and revealing the dense tissue such as the bone as white. This allows the doctor to see any problem areas, and diagnosis the problem. Before the discovery of the x-ray machine, doctors had no way of looking inside the body before cutting a patient