X-ray, electromagnetic radiation of extremely short wavelength and high frequency, with wavelengths ranging from about 10^(-8) to 10^(-12) metre and corresponding frequencies from about 10^(16) to 10^(20) hertz (Hz).
X-rays are commonly produced by accelerating (or decelerating) charged particles; examples include a beam of electrons striking a metal plate in an X-ray tube and a circulating beam of electrons in a synchrotron particle accelerator or storage ring. In addition, highly excited atoms can emit X-rays with discrete wavelengths characteristic of the energy level spacings in the atoms.
The X-ray region of the electromagnetic spectrum falls far outside the range of visible wavelengths. However, the passage of X-rays through materials, including biological tissue, can be recorded with photographic films and other detectors. The analysis of X-ray images of the body is an extremely valuable medical diagnostic tool.
X-rays were discovered in 1895 by German physicist Wilhelm Konrad Röntgen while investigating the effects of electron beams (then called cathode rays) in electrical discharges through low-pressure gases. More precisely, on 8 November 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen stumbled on X-rays while experimenting with Lenard tubes and Crookes tubes and began studying them.
Röntgen uncovered a startling effect—namely, that a screen coated with a fluorescent material placed outside a discharge tube would glow even when it was shielded from the direct visible and ultraviolet light of the gaseous discharge. He deduced that an invisible radiation from the tube passed through the air and caused the screen to fluoresce.
Röntgen was able to show that the radiation responsible for the fluorescence originated from the point where the electron beam struck the glass wall of the discharge tube. Opaque objects placed between the tube and the screen proved to be transparent to the new form of radiation; Röntgen dramatically demonstrated this by producing a photographic image of the bones of the human hand.
Röntgen discovered their medical use when he made a picture of his wife’s hand on a photographic plate formed due to X-rays. The photograph of his wife’s hand was the first photograph of a human body part using X-rays. When she saw the picture, she said “I have seen my death.”
His discovery of so-called Röntgen rays was met with worldwide scientific and popular excitement, and, along with the discoveries of radioactivity (1896) and the electron (1897), it ushered in the study of the atomic world and the era of modern physics.
As a german, Wilhelm Röntgen sounds like Francis Microwave to me.
The golden age of physics.
In Dutch we call them Röntgen rays
(or more precisely, Röntgen radiation)
Like most scientific pioneers in this field, he died of cancer
The age of fierce looking bearded men staring into the distance.
He brought his wife into the lab and proudly did an X ray of her hand. When she saw the image of a skeleton hand wearing her wedding ring she thought it was an omen of death and ran screaming out of the lab.
The fact that they are called X-rays in the USA is due to the fact that the first application of the technology was at fairs and medical shows.
Therefore, the strange rays from Europe were given a lurid and mystical marketing name.
But wasn’t the first X-ray image taken by Tesla, or no wait, I think it was actually him confirming Röntgen’s work. Something along those lines.
Edit: reformulated my comment.
I’m going to assume that he accidentally touched a live wire and it lighted him up and his skin, flesh and organs went translucent like in a cartoon and you cannot convince me otherwise.
In Swedish, as in many European languages, we call it Röntgen rays (röntgen strålar) but we’ve also turned it into a verb; röntga (lit. to röntg, to x-ray) which unfortunately often sounds like the verb and word “runka” which means to jack off, and this often leads to funny sounding statements from medical professionals.
Wilhelm Röntgen, greatest Apeldoorner of the 20th century!
12 comments
X-ray, electromagnetic radiation of extremely short wavelength and high frequency, with wavelengths ranging from about 10^(-8) to 10^(-12) metre and corresponding frequencies from about 10^(16) to 10^(20) hertz (Hz).
X-rays are commonly produced by accelerating (or decelerating) charged particles; examples include a beam of electrons striking a metal plate in an X-ray tube and a circulating beam of electrons in a synchrotron particle accelerator or storage ring. In addition, highly excited atoms can emit X-rays with discrete wavelengths characteristic of the energy level spacings in the atoms.
The X-ray region of the electromagnetic spectrum falls far outside the range of visible wavelengths. However, the passage of X-rays through materials, including biological tissue, can be recorded with photographic films and other detectors. The analysis of X-ray images of the body is an extremely valuable medical diagnostic tool.
X-rays were discovered in 1895 by German physicist Wilhelm Konrad Röntgen while investigating the effects of electron beams (then called cathode rays) in electrical discharges through low-pressure gases. More precisely, on 8 November 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen stumbled on X-rays while experimenting with Lenard tubes and Crookes tubes and began studying them.
Röntgen uncovered a startling effect—namely, that a screen coated with a fluorescent material placed outside a discharge tube would glow even when it was shielded from the direct visible and ultraviolet light of the gaseous discharge. He deduced that an invisible radiation from the tube passed through the air and caused the screen to fluoresce.
Röntgen was able to show that the radiation responsible for the fluorescence originated from the point where the electron beam struck the glass wall of the discharge tube. Opaque objects placed between the tube and the screen proved to be transparent to the new form of radiation; Röntgen dramatically demonstrated this by producing a photographic image of the bones of the human hand.
Röntgen discovered their medical use when he made a picture of his wife’s hand on a photographic plate formed due to X-rays. The photograph of his wife’s hand was the first photograph of a human body part using X-rays. When she saw the picture, she said “I have seen my death.”
His discovery of so-called Röntgen rays was met with worldwide scientific and popular excitement, and, along with the discoveries of radioactivity (1896) and the electron (1897), it ushered in the study of the atomic world and the era of modern physics.
As a german, Wilhelm Röntgen sounds like Francis Microwave to me.
The golden age of physics.
In Dutch we call them Röntgen rays
(or more precisely, Röntgen radiation)
Like most scientific pioneers in this field, he died of cancer
The age of fierce looking bearded men staring into the distance.
He brought his wife into the lab and proudly did an X ray of her hand. When she saw the image of a skeleton hand wearing her wedding ring she thought it was an omen of death and ran screaming out of the lab.
The fact that they are called X-rays in the USA is due to the fact that the first application of the technology was at fairs and medical shows.
Therefore, the strange rays from Europe were given a lurid and mystical marketing name.
But wasn’t the first X-ray image taken by Tesla, or no wait, I think it was actually him confirming Röntgen’s work. Something along those lines.
Edit: reformulated my comment.
I’m going to assume that he accidentally touched a live wire and it lighted him up and his skin, flesh and organs went translucent like in a cartoon and you cannot convince me otherwise.
In Swedish, as in many European languages, we call it Röntgen rays (röntgen strålar) but we’ve also turned it into a verb; röntga (lit. to röntg, to x-ray) which unfortunately often sounds like the verb and word “runka” which means to jack off, and this often leads to funny sounding statements from medical professionals.
Wilhelm Röntgen, greatest Apeldoorner of the 20th century!