The X-Ray

On November 8, 1895 Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen, a German, accidentally came upon the x-ray. The x-ray is a complex piece of technology that airports and hospitals use greatly in life today. In the medical world the x-ray has helped find diseases when no other piece of technology could. The x-ray is a very important machine that our world couldn't do without.

Rontgen accidentally discovered the x-ray when he was studying the effects of the cathode ray. He found that the x-ray could light up a screen a few meters from the source. He also found that the light was penetrating and could stick his hand through the light and see the bones in his hand. This showed him that more dense materials, like bones, absorbed more x-rays than less dense material, like skin. Although the x-ray was accidentally found, we are fully grateful for all the things we have found using the x-ray.(Briticanna)

We are thankful for the year when Rontgen discovered the x-ray, it changed society forever. It led to finding killer diseases and, to finding terrorists in airports. X-rays have made tons of immeasurable contributions to early diagnosis and control of disease. Without the x-ray many with cancers and other diseases would die, but since we have the x-ray doctors can detect those diseases and treat them.(Briticanna)

X-rays are when a stream of high energy electrons strikes a metallic electrode; the electrons slow down and penetrate into the metal. X-rays can pass through objects that are opaque in regular light and shadow images and objects can be made visible on a fluorescent screen coated with barium platinocyanide. When an x-ray passes through a substance, diffraction phenomena occur that reveal the wave character of radiation. An interference pattern composed of dots can be formed on a photographic plate. These diffraction patterns were 1st studied by M. Von Laue, known as the Laue "x" patterns.(Simon and Schuster)

Over time the world has