The Basics
The speed of light is constant and always the product of these two numbers that characterize electromagnetic radiation
What is frequency and wavelength?
Radiation can be characterized in two ways: one way is ionizing radiation, and the other is this type of radiation.
What is non-ionizing radiation?
In addition to photons, this neutral particle can indirectly ionize and excite material.
What are neutrons?
To make photons via brehmsstrahlung, you must accelerate electrons from a cathode to this.
What is an anode (or target)?
This is the old, non SI, unit for quantifying radioactivity.
What is a Curie?
An electromagnetic field can be created when simultaneously changing these things.
What is an electric field or magnetic field?
This type of photon scattering with an atom retains the original energy of the photon, but redirects it.
What is Rayliegh or coherent scattering?
Brehmsstrahlung only happens when a fast-moving electron becomes deflected by this object in an atom.
What is (the electric field) of a nucleus?
What is mass?
This "type of life" is the time required for the activity to decay to half its original value.
What is half-life?
The term used to describe the physical distance (or length) between the peaks of an electromagnetic wave.
What is wavelength?
This type of photon scattering with an atomic electron becomes completely absorbed by the atom. It does, however, release a unique photon beam energy or a (Meitner) electron.
What is the Photoelectric Effect?
The most dominant photon interaction for radiation beams with energies most commonly observed in x-ray CT imaging and radiotherapy.
What is the Compton Effect?
This radio-isotope was (and is) used to generate high-energy radiation beams that have a skin-sparing effect.
What is Cobalt-60
The decay constant and the half-life are related by this constant.
What is Ln(2) or 0.693?
The letter used to characterize the number protons in an atom.
What is Z?
Compton scattering results in these two particles leaving an atom.
What is a (lower energy) photon and an electron?
Of elastic or inelastic collisions, this one is like billiard ball collisions with electrons.
What are elastic collisions?
What is Flattening Filter Free?
A gamma decay results in the ejection of this kind of particle from the nucleus.
What is a photon?
After he won the Nobel Prize in Physics, Niels Bohr reconfigured plumbing in his house so that he could have a direct connection to a pub that provided this kind of fluid.
What is beer?
Pair production cannot happen unless the energy of the photon is equal to or greater than two times the mass of this type of particle.
What is an electron?
This type of photon interactions results in 3 newly created particles.
What is triplet production?
An incredibly useful rule of thumb for electron beams is that for every 2 MeV of energy, the distance the electron looses most of its energy is this distance.
What is 1 cm?
An alpha decay results in the ejection of these particles.
What is an alpha particle, or He+2? (i.e., 2 protons + 2 neutrons)