Radiation- Pro or Con?

[JamesSavik]

I want to see how people feel about radiation and examine people attitudes and knowledge of the subject.

 

Due to the woeful science education that most Americans get, I fear that our knowledge of radiation has been unduly influenced by cheesy sci-fi movies.

 

Here's a little help on the subject.

 

 

 

[Julian Alexander]

I hope I answered right. I know radiation is everywhere, even as I type this.

[John Doe]

I hope I answered right. I know radiation is everywhere, even as I type this.

 

 

Yep. We get radiation from the sun and the applicances we use. If only I can get super powers from them and be a super hero. Though I'm not going to lie, if I have super powers and was about the only one with super powers, I may lean towards the naughty "not so good side" at moments.

 

PLus radiation isn't all bad. Chemotherapy is just that.

[Tipdin]

I'm hearing about mobile phones emitting just enough radiation to affect the brain.

 

So does that explain why people are too dumb now to put their phone away when driving?

[Nephylim]

I have to admit that I don't know as much about radiation as I should. Everything in existence exudes radiation but I don't think that we should be playing about with it as much as we are. There is nothing inherently bad with it, there's just something inherently bad in humanity.

 

And I, like John Doe would have to admit to leaning towards the dark side as far as superpowers are concerned.

[Mark Arbour]

 

And I, like John Doe would have to admit to leaning towards the dark side as far as superpowers are concerned.

 

 

No. Surely not. Not you. Leaning towards The Dark Side?

 

 

[Nephylim]

[Aeroplane]

I'm hearing about mobile phones emitting just enough radiation to affect the brain.

 

So does that explain why people are too dumb now to put their phone away when driving?

 

I think that is a natural phenomenon .

 

I also think that the radiation link was disproved quite recently, some 'long term trends' study which showed that children growing up near mobile phone masts were no more likely to develop cancer than those who didn't.

 

 

 

Poll nitpick time.

 

When you say 'filtered out by the atmosphere', are you including the planetary magnetic field in that?

 

 

 

Gamma Rays:

I think that most gamma rays are greatly reduced in intensity because the 10 miles or so of atmosphere gives adequate shielding through compton scattering and other absorption. So the atmosphere is 'mostly opaque' to this type of radiation.

 

X-Rays:

Same as gamma, mostly opaque.

 

UV:

This is blocked by ozone because it causes ozonolysis (splitting of ozone) to occur, thus depleting it's energy. Comes in several arbitrary categories; A, B and C (among others), denoting increasing energy.

 

Visible light:

Obviously not blocked by the atmosphere otherwise we wouldn't be able to see out.

 

IR:

Attenuated by the atmosphere to a degree, some wavelengths better than others.

 

Microwaves:

Sortof. Microwaves of some frequencies (2.4GHz) are absorbed by water vapour which we have a lot of in the atmosphere, others aren't, e.g. those we use to communicate with satellites, or use in radar. Microwaves are in the right general area of the spectrum to be absorbed by a wide range of materials. So the answer to this really depends on wavelength.

 

Short wave radio:

I'm not sure on this, I suspect not. I think the space programme has used it at one time or another.

 

Long wave radio:

I voted yes because you can bounce long wave radio off a layer in the atmosphere (the ionosphere) to achieve worldwide coverage from a single location. This might depend on the angle of incidence (the angle it hits the ionosphere at) but I think the case is there for LWR to be blocked by the atmosphere under some conditions.

 

Alpha particles:

These are blocked both by the magnetic field (giving rise to the northern lights along with beta particles) and the atmosphere because they can only travel about 1cm before colliding with some atom and disappearing.

 

Beta particles:

These have a slightly greater longevity in air than alpha particles, but only about 10-30cm. A few mm of aluminium will also stop it.

 

Neutrinos:

These are not stopped by anything very often, they don't interact much with ordinary matter not designed for the purpose.

 

Cosmic rays:

Depending on energy (usually very high) these will not be stopped by the atmosphere, but will be absorbed by the bulk of the planet.

 

 

 

 

Best advice I can give about dealing with radiation:

know what you're dealing with.. e.g. don't wear lead gloves and a helmet for dealing with UV.. it's not necessary..

if you suspect it is dangerous, keep your distance. particle radiation is often attenuated by the atmosphere, and waves obey the inverse square law.

glowing blue is dangerous. Cherenkov radiation is an indicator that various nuclear reactions are occuring.

don't eat or breathe anything radioactive.

Edited June 30, 2010 by Emu

[Matthew k]

Never, ever fall asleep at the beach around friends with sick senses of humor. Radiation can do baaad things with help from a stencil.

 

[Eros]

Never, ever fall asleep at the beach around friends with sick senses of humor. Radiation can do baaad things with help from a stencil.

 

 

Oh my god! Just look at how he's wearing his boxers! That's awful! Geez... kids these days...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(The phallic tan shape made me giggle.)

[soup]

Never, ever fall asleep at the beach around friends with sick senses of humor. Radiation can do baaad things with help from a stencil.

 

 

poor guy

[Rilbur]

Radiation is. Most people really overreact to the idea of it. You can pick up a huge load of radiation from something as simple as taking an airplane flight, or getting an X-Ray taken.

 

Should you try to minimize 'excess' exposure? Yes. Should you fret over it? No.

 

Also, chemotherapy is only parly about radiation. It's actually a chemical treatment, with the addition of radiation. They poison your body with the chemo, hoping to poison the tumor worse than you (this is why chemo is so terrible; they are literally shooting you as full of poison as they 'safely' can). The radioactive aspect of it is because up to a certain threshold, radiation exposure actually helps your body's immune system.

[JamesSavik]

When you say 'filtered out by the atmosphere', are you including the planetary magnetic field in that?

 

There are several mechanisms that make this work:

 

Absorption is the most common. A photon at a specific wavelength encounters an atom or molecule and its energy is absorbed. Generally speaking, the higher the wavelength, the easier it is to be absorbed by our to component parts of our atmosphere at varying altitudes and pressures. Different gases (atoms or molecules) absorb different wavelengths more efficiently. What radiation gets through is an aggregate of what is not well absorbed by N₂, H₂O, O₂ or CO₂.

 

 

Particulate radiation like alpha and beta particles are absorbed into the magnetic field via a different mechanism. Those fields (lines of force) have polarities and particle streams of their own which are overwhelming to individual particles.