Need help with my writing homework on Uses of X-Rays. Write a 1250 word paper answering; Wilhelm Röntgen was the discoverer of X-rays in 1895 almost by an accident While doing some experiments, he observed that the photographic plates nearby (in a vacuum) began to grow fogged while an electric current passing through it. After a series of experiments, he concluded that the electric current in the vacuum is producing some unknown rays. Röntgen names these rays as X rays because of its unknown nature (Monk). Later, it was identified that X-rays have no charge and it has high penetrating power. Since its discovery, X-rays have brought revolutionary changes in many segments of human life, especially in medical science, industrial segment and security-related areas. This paper explains what are X-rays and its advantages and disadvantages.

X-rays are electromagnetic radiations having wavelengths in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, frequencies in the range of 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz (3×1016 Hz to 3×1019 Hz) and energies in the range 100 eV to 100 keV(Thorn et al.). Based on the energy level, X-rays are classified into two categories: Hard X rays and soft X rays. X rays that have energies above 5–10 keV (below 0.2–0.1&nbsp.nm wavelength) are called hard X-rays, while those with lower energy are called soft X-rays (Attwood, p.2). As the name indicates, hard X rays have high penetrating power compared to soft X rays and it is used widely in medical radiography and airport security.

One of the major characteristics of X rays is its penetrating power. “X rays are used with computers in CAT (computerized axial tomography) scans to produce cross-sectional images of the inside of the body” (X rays). It can pass or penetrate through the human body and produce images of opaque objects such as bones inside the body. Since X-rays help to see the images of many parts inside the human body, it is used widely in medical science to identify the problems inside the body, especially to bones and some other opaque organs inside the body. “X-rays are widely used in medicine to reveal the architecture of the bone and other soft tissues and to find out any abnormality in the form of fracture, growth of tumor etc. It is also used in dental imaging” (MED India).