Electromagnetic Waves in Technology

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Electromagnetic Waves in Technology Electromagnetic waves are very present in today’s society and play an important aspect in our technology. They come in many different wavelengths; there are radio, X-rays, microwave, ultraviolet, infrared, visible rays and gamma rays. One of the technologies used in medicine that requires electromagnetic waves are X-Rays. It was invented in 1895, apparently completely by accident, by a German physicist named Wilhelm Röetgen. He was experimenting with electron beams in a gas discharge tube when he noticed that a fluorescent screen in his lab began to glow when the electron beam was turned on. Surrounding his tube though was a screen, making him wonder how the radiation hadn’t been blocked by that screen. He tried placing many object between the tube and the screen, but it still glowed. One time, he decided to put his hand, and he saw the silhouette of the bones in his hand projected onto the screen. Visible light rays and x-rays work in a similar manner, both being wavelike forms of electromagnetic energy carried by particles called photons. “The photon concept was introduced by Albert Einstein in order to explain physical phenomena that could not be understood based on the wave properties of light” (Bensaada, Ouellette, 2011, pg 32). The only difference between both is the energy levels of these photons, which is expressed as the wavelength of the rays. Visible light rays and X-Rays are produced by the movement of the electrons in the atom. Another form of more sophisticated X-rays are CT Scans, computer tomography also known as Cat Scans. CT scans work very much like any other X-ray scan, but instead of having only a small burst of radiation sent through the body, numerous beams of X-rays are sent through the body and a set of electronic x-ray detectors rotate around the body, measuring the amount of radiation being

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