Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A gamma ray, also known as gamma radiation (symbol γ ), is a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from high energy interactions like the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei or astronomical events like solar flares.
Radiation damage is the effect of ionizing radiation on physical objects including non-living structural materials. It can be either detrimental or beneficial for materials. Radiobiology is the study of the action of ionizing radiation on living things, including the health effects of radiation in humans.
Intense thermal radiation at the hypocenter forms a nuclear fireball which, if the explosion is low enough in altitude, is often associated with a mushroom cloud. In a high-altitude burst where the density of the atmosphere is low, more energy is released as ionizing gamma radiation and X-rays than as an atmosphere-displacing shockwave.
Gamma radiation detected in an isopropanol cloud chamber. Gamma (γ) radiation consists of photons with a wavelength less than 3 × 10 −11 m (greater than 10 19 Hz and 41.4 keV). [4] Gamma radiation emission is a nuclear process that occurs to rid an unstable nucleus of excess energy after most nuclear reactions. Both alpha and beta particles ...
The level of health risk is dependent on duration and the type and strength of irradiation. Penetrating radiation such as gamma rays, X-rays, neutrons or beta particles pose the greatest risk from an external source. Low penetrating radiation such as alpha particles have a low external risk due to the shielding effect of the top layers of skin.
The field strength of electromagnetic radiation is measured in volts per meter (V/m). [2] The most common health hazard of radiation is sunburn, which causes between approximately 100,000 and 1 million new skin cancers annually in the United States. [3] [4]
In addition, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation calculated excess relative risk in the first trimester. [25] It is 0.28 per mGy. [25] Excess relative risk is the rate of disease in an exposed population divided by the rate of disease in an unexposed population, minus 1.0. [2]
The medical effects of the atomic bomb upon humans can be put into the four categories below, with the effects of larger thermonuclear weapons producing blast and thermal effects so large that there would be a negligible number of survivors close enough to the center of the blast who would experience prompt/acute radiation effects, which were observed after the 16 kiloton yield Hiroshima bomb ...