EMR & Wave Physics
The physical property defined as the distance between two successive wave crests or troughs.
What is wavelength?
The typical peak operating voltage range required for an X-ray circuit to produce diagnostic X-rays.
What is 50,000 to 150,000 Volts (50–150 kV)?
The radiation protection practice of strictly limiting the X-ray beam field size to the anatomical area of interest.
What is collimation?
The type of filtration inherent to the X-ray tube assembly, such as the glass envelope and insulating oil.
What is inherent filtration?
The traditional standard unit used to quantify radioactive decay rate
What is the Curie (Ci)
mathematical relationship between electromagnetic wave frequency and wavelength.
What is an inverse (or inversely proportional) relationship?
The variable transformer located on the low-voltage side that adjusts incoming line voltage before stepping it up.
What is an autotransformer?
The primary limitation of using Effective Dose (E) as a radiation protection metric in clinical settings.
What is that it ignores individual patient variables (age, gender, weight) / is best for population risk rather than personal assessment?
Filters added directly into the primary beam path to produce uniform exposure when imaging anatomical structures of non-uniform thickness.
What are compensating filters?
The time required for a radioisotope's radiation activity to decrease by exactly 50%.
What is the Half-Life
Discrete, localized packets or "quanta" of pure energy through which X-rays interact with matter.
What are photons?
This specific transformer steps down voltage to increase amperage for heating the tungsten filament.
What is the filament (step-down) transformer?
The principle of selecting exposure factors that balance low patient dose with sufficient diagnostic image quality.
What is optimization (or high kVp / low mAs technique optimization)?
The specific shape of compensating filter typically used for imaging the foot or thoracic spine.
What is a wedge filter?
The SI unit measuring radioactivity, defined as one disintegration per second.
What is the Becquerel (Bq)?
The dual behavior exhibited by X-rays, allowing them to travel through space like waves and interact like particles.
What is wave-particle duality?
The component that maintains a strict vacuum inside the tube assembly, preventing electrons from colliding with gas molecules.
What is the glass or metal envelope (enclosure)?
The standard operational procedure that must be performed on all eligible female patients prior to exposure.
What is pregnancy screening?
The primary type of radiation removed by aluminum beam filtration to reduce unnecessary patient skin dose.
What are low-energy X-ray photons?
The operational practice that should always be performed prior to initial daily exposures to prevent thermal shock to the anode target.
What is warming up the X-ray tube?
The metric that represents the number of wave cycles passing a fixed point per unit of time (measured in Hertz).
What is frequency?
The electrical formula used to calculate generator power output in kilowatts (kW).
What is Power = Current X Voltage (P = I X V)?
The component of biological dose calculations represented by Wt.
What is the tissue weighting factor?
The remaining percentage of primary beam intensity after passing through two successive Half-Value Layers (HVL).
What is 25%?
The operational habit that causes unnecessary thermal wear on the filament and anode bearings without making an exposure.
What is holding down the rotor (prep) button unnecessarily?