WEBVTT - How X-Rays Work 0:00:01.200 --> 0:00:04.040 Hey, Chuck, you're almost done. Everybody with the science playlist. 0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:06.680 I hope all of our egghead friends out there got 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:10.160 into this one. This one is I feel like quite 0:00:10.160 --> 0:00:12.799 a while ago, but it's about X rays. It's called 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:16.440 How X Rays Work, and it's super nerdy and super fascinating. 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:17.640 Give it a listen. 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:29.960 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from HowStuffWorks dot com. 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:32.879 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:36.280 Charles W. Chuck Bryan as always, and there's Jerry over 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:39.840 there fiddlin around with stuff. So it's Stuff you should 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:42.760 know the podcast, not Stuff you should know. 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:43.200 The movie. 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:47.720 That's right, you know, we're sworn to secrecy about that. 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:49.519 That'd be a good movie. That'd be a bad movie. 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:51.640 I don't know, Man, it could go either way. I 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:55.280 always see I imagine it like Strange Brew. 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:59.480 Oh yeah, yes, they could base it on the Stuff 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:02.120 you Should Know Tell All book I'm writing. Oh yeah, 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:03.000 that would be exciting. 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:05.440 That would be very exciting to be I'm looking forward 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:06.240 to that book like. 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:07.520 A Lifetime movie of the Week. 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:12.120 Do you like switch people's names like am I Joe? 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:18.240 Yeah, Joe Clack, Yeah exactly. Now it's sort of like like, 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:20.759 did you see the Say It by the Bell movie? 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:21.399 Oh? 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:24.160 Yeah, I didn't Screech write a book. It was based 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:26.480 on a book by Screech. Right, Yeah, wasn't it like 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:28.320 all sex and drugs and stuff? 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:30.240 Oh it was, you know, it was a bunch of 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:33.440 teenagers in Hollywood, So sure there was some of that 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:35.240 in there, but it was I didn't read the book. 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:39.200 But the movie was bad and not nearly as sealacious 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:40.120 as he wanted it to be. 0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:43.360 Right. I remember a lot of people being disappointed, and 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:45.880 I remember, I mean, I recall the like two weeks 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:48.640 ago when people were talking about it when it came out. 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:50.640 It's stunk. I'll watch Emily and I'll watch some of 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:56.080 those just terrible, terrible biopics occasionally on TV, and it's 0:01:56.240 --> 0:01:58.720 it can be fun. Like we watched the who was 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:04.080 the one actor? Brittany Murphy? The Britney Murphy story? 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:06.000 Oh really? Does she have a heck of a story? 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:07.360 Is she alive still or did she die? 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:11.200 No, she passed away because under kind of weird circumstances, 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:14.080 because she and her husband both passed away within weeks 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:14.560 of each other. 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:15.239 Weird. 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:17.400 And there were all these strange claims that her house 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:23.160 was poisoned, that they were poisoned, and yeah, it was. 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:24.200 It was fun. 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:25.320 What's your take on it? 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:29.160 Oh? I don't know, just that the movie wasn't very good. 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:32.200 Who played Brittany Murphy? Do you remember so many Bowen? 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:34.000 Wasn't it? No, she's in all of those. 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:38.160 Someone who didn't look very much like Britney Murphy, Julie Bowen. 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:39.359 But I was right. 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:41.320 The Ashton Kutcher guy was pretty good, though, I. 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:43.000 Gotta say Steve Jobs played him. 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:45.679 They should have just gotten Ashton Kutcher to play himself. 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:47.919 He's not doing much. He's on what two and a 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:48.320 half Men? 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:49.080 I don't know. 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:51.560 That's got to require fifteen minutes of work a week. 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:52.920 He's selling cameras. 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:54.760 Do you remember when that whole two and a half 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:57.240 Men thing was going down? We were in La and 0:02:57.360 --> 0:02:59.639 for the one and only time in my entire life, 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:01.400 I see John Cryer that day. 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:03.760 Oh, during the Charlie Sheen mel. 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:06.320 Meltdown like the day of the meltdown, like it happened 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:09.440 at night. And within eight hours I saw John Cryer 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:11.760 for the first time in person at a McDonald's. Did 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:15.840 gel ducky No, I left him alone he looks stressed out. 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:18.760 Well, yeah, he's probably like, my career is going down 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:20.040 the tubes, but little did he know. 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:20.840 He's a survivor. 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:22.280 Yeah, his career is just fun. Yep. 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:26.000 So x rays. Yeah, that's what we're talking. 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:29.000 About, right, Yep. That the lightest part of this podcast. 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:31.480 I like this one. This one. It's one of those 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:35.800 things where if you can just hang on by your fingernails, 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:39.040 it can click and then you lose it again, but 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:42.400 that means that it could click again later on. That's 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:43.520 what I like about it. 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:46.400 Good. I'll leave that to you. I got lots of 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:49.120 other stuff about it. Oh you do, but I totally understand. 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:49.320 Good. 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:49.560 Good. 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:53.000 So have you ever broken anything and needed an X 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:55.000 ray or has it all just been dental stuff? 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:56.640 You know it? Dude? Never broken a bone? 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:58.000 Knock on wood? 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:02.960 Yeah, I mean I've had my injuries were always stitches. 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:07.040 I was always getting busted open, oh yeah, rocks and sprinklers, 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:09.960 and I was always getting cut yeah and sewed back up. 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:11.160 But I never broke a bone. 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:13.800 That's great. Yeah, you should probably knocking on old one 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:14.800 more time, just to be safe. 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:15.080 Yeah. 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:17.760 Uh so, Yeah, all of my X rays too, have 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:19.719 been like just going to the dentist or whatever. 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:20.800 You never had a bone broken. 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:23.080 I don't want to say, because I don't even know 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:24.320 if knocking on wood will. 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:25.640 Do it on lambin at ikea. 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:30.479 That would just be so horribly interesting if both of 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:31.839 us broke a bone after this. 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:34.040 Yeah, and we're at the age where like you should 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:36.120 break bones when you're a kid, where you're like, eh, whatever, 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:38.280 I get a cast at this age, it's a drag. 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:38.719 Yeah. 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:39.080 Yeah. 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:42.120 I remember reading like a Tom Clancy novel and like 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:45.120 some kid got an arm torn off or whatever, and 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:47.400 one of the surgeons was like, if the arm's in 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:49.719 the same room as the kid, it can be healed. 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:50.240 Right. 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:53.000 That doesn't hold true in you're Tom Clancy's age. 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:55.240 No, So. 0:04:56.880 --> 0:04:59.040 You are familiar with X rays, so you've seen them before, 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:00.679 you've watched er surely? 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:02.520 Yeah, I mean I've had X rays for like the 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:05.720 dental ones like you said, and then just other various 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:09.360 like uh like chest X rays for sicknesses and things 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:11.120 like that, which I think may be a little frivolous, 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:12.000 to be honest. 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:16.159 Yeah, and kind of dangerous really Yeah, conceivably sure, which 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:19.080 we'll get into later. But did you were you familiar 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:20.880 with X rays at all. Beyond that, did you know 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:24.040 that they were invented or discovered accidentally? 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:25.440 Yeah? I did know that. 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:26.640 I did not. 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:28.360 That's one of the few things I know. I saw 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:31.280 a little like Quickie short on some like it might 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:32.520 have been actually Science Channel. 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:35.520 I looked all over. The most I could find was 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:40.040 a dude on Siemens just describing it in the most. 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:41.760 Flat affect I've watched. 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:43.200 Video. 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:45.520 Yeah. I got to five and five wouldn't load, and 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:46.359 I was like, forget this. 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:48.520 Yeah, if I've never loaded for me. I watched the 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:51.840 other fourteen though, and the whole time I was going, man, 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:54.839 these are a minute long, please join them all together 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:56.240 into one six minute video. 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:57.520 No, it was so weird. 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:00.440 Yeah, it was pretty silly, but he was he was good. 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:02.600 He was just very dry. 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:06.320 Yeah, and they spent zero pennies on any kind of 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:10.400 soundtrack or anything like if he grabs papers, you hear 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:14.719 papers wrestling in a classroom. It was pretty straightforward. 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:19.680 Yes, but that's a very wind about, roundabout way of 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:23.320 getting to it's discovery in eighteen ninety five by a 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:28.920 German physicist named Wilhelm Runtiken Nice, and he was testing 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:32.880 whether cathode rays could pass through glass, and he saw 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:36.600 that the fluorescent screen was glowing when he turned on 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:39.440 his electron beam, which wasn't a big deal, but he 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:42.080 was like, wait, this's got cardboard around it, right. 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:44.839 There shouldn't be any visible light escaping, which is silly 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:46.359 to think of. Now, well, yeah it is, but you 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:49.120 have to put yourself in his shoes like X hadn't 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:51.680 been discovered because he was literally on the verge of 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:52.720 discovering them, right. 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:53.520 Then, that's right. 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:55.880 And yeah, so he was like, this is very curious 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:57.080 that this is fluorescing. 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:00.720 Yeah, and he noticed other things were glowing, and eventually 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:04.560 he started putting other objects between the tube and the screen. 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.880 They glowed the screen dead. That is finally put his 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:08.400 hand there. 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:09.600 I read his wife's hand. 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:12.239 Oh really. He's like, either way, come. 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:13.680 In here for a second. Yeah, I want you to 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:14.640 try something. 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:20.600 And saw bones projected and then I guess probably poo 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:23.200 pooed his pants. It's a man, I think, come on 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.240 to something here. Yeah, it was really that quickly. He 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:29.920 was like immediately the application was clear. It wasn't one 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:32.400 of those things where it took twenty years. He's like, 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:35.400 hold on, you can see bones. This could be really helpful. Yes, 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:38.880 And he won a Nobel Prize very rightfully so, the 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:41.800 first one ever for physics. And he named him X 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:45.160 rays because he didn't know what the heck it was. No, 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:46.920 exactly like kind of signing your name. 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:49.440 He'd probably right. I think he assumed that later on 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:53.160 future scientists would fill in the blanks, but they were like, no, 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:54.160 we're cool with X rays. 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:56.360 Well, he probably thought that someone would eventually call it 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:59.000 like the Rundken ray or something. 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:02.000 He wasn't much of a self promoter. He was just like, 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:04.280 all this calum X rays is a placeholder. 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:06.520 And he didn't patent any anything, you know, he never 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:07.480 like made money off that. 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.440 And then just his wife had hand cancer as a result. 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:15.240 Really no, oh, I was laughing, but no, she did. 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:16.040 That would be their it was. 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:17.960 It was just a joke. You can proceed with the laugh. 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:19.840 Plus, I've never heard a hand cancer. 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:22.160 It's gotta be out there. 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:24.360 And then a couple of years later they were already 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:26.600 using it in the Balkan War. Was the first time 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:28.640 it was really put to practical use with the. 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:32.080 First Balkan War, the one around World War. 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:33.760 One was that well, No, eighteen ninety seven. 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:37.720 Oh, that Balkan war. I didn't know that existed until 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:38.160 just now. 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:41.200 Yeah, and they said we can see bullets and trapnel 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:43.240 and stuff now, which is helpful. 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:47.559 It is extremely helpful. So, like this guy Runken discovers 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:51.000 X rays and their most practical application in one fell 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:55.440 swoop basically yep, And a little further study revealed the 0:08:55.600 --> 0:09:02.000 X rays are actually just another part of the electromagnetic spectrum, 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:06.760 of which radio waves, microwaves what we call visible light. Yeah, 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:09.520 what else is on there? 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:15.040 Well, I've got my handy wallet electromagnetic spectrum card. Yeah, 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:19.880 and X rays fall between gamma rays and ultraviolet rays 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:24.160 on that spectrum, which are all below. Well you say below, 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:26.160 I don't know if it's not really an above or 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:31.560 below situation visible light and then infrared, microwaven radio. 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:34.040 Waves, so it would be a higher or lower frequency, 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:35.720 because that's how the whole thing's divided. 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:36.559 Yeah. 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:40.400 So, like the visible spectrum of light consists of electromagnetic 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:45.720 radiation that has a frequency a wavelength that our eyes 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:48.840 are sensitized to, so we can pick up visible light. 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:52.840 There's plenty of other stuff on the spectrum of electromagnetic 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:56.079 radiation and all of it is delineated by the frequency 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:59.319 the wavelengths. So at the highest end you have gamma rays. 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:02.719 They're like, yeah, that means the squiggly line is very 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:03.920 close together exactly. 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:07.000 And then on the farthest end you have radio waves 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:07.400 that are like. 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:12.560 And that means the squiggly line is far apart exactly, 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:14.440 And that is called chuck science. 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:16.360 That's good stuff. 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:16.920 Yeah. 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:19.920 So back of my wallet xtra, right next to the 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:21.880 what else you have in there? 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:26.640 I just have my PAPS blue ribbon membership car, which 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:29.520 I actually do, do you really, Yeah, but I've had 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:30.959 it for like twenty years. 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:34.240 Wow, when you got it when you're like seven eight? 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:35.920 Yeah, you flatter me. 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:41.720 So X rays fall, I guess we're about in the well, Yeah, 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:43.920 the higher and they have a higher frequency as far 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:47.200 as the electromagnetic spectrum goes. But the point is is 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:50.199 that it is ultimately the same thing. It's a it's 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:54.199 a type of electromagnetic energy that is carried on a photon, 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:56.840 which is a particle of what we would call light. 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:00.480 Yeah, and we talked about photons a plenty in the show, 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:06.160 and the same like photons produce the visible light that 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:09.840 we can see. Photons blast out from the Sun. How 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:10.560 long does it take? 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:12.920 Like it takes like one hundred thousand years to get 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:15.080 from the core to the surface and then like eight 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:17.960 minutes to get from the surface to Earth. That's right, man, 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:19.320 I love that fact. 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:22.080 So this is the only part I understand, so I'll 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:26.200 lead with it. If you want to imagine an atom, 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.440 a nucleus of an atom and rings around that atiom 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:34.920 atiom that's a new word, an atom. As orbitals, when 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:39.480 an electron drops to a lower orbital, it releases energy 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:41.439 in the form of a photon. 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:44.079 And the electron will always drop to the lower orbital. 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:44.680 That's right. 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:47.080 So like if an orbital is if an electron is 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:49.760 kicked off of a lower orbital, an electron in the 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:52.760 higher orbital goes yeah and drops down to that one. 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:54.840 Yes, And depending on how far it drops, it's going 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:57.480 to determine the energy level of that photon. 0:11:57.240 --> 0:12:00.880 That's that it releases as energy when it drops, right, Yeah, Because. 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:03.400 It doesn't have to drop more than one orbital, right, 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:05.640 you can skip down I don't even know how far, 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:07.319 but a long way. 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:09.200 Yeah, it can. And like you said, the greater the 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:12.559 distance between the two orbitals or the greater the energy differential, 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:16.240 the greater the energy that photon when released will have. 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:17.400 Right, that's right. 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:20.600 And as we said, photons are the energy carriers of 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:24.760 the electromagnetic spectrum. And depending on that energy or the 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:29.160 frequency the wavelength of that photon, that determines what kind 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:31.800 of photon it is, right, whether it's a radio photon 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:35.800 or an X ray photon, or a photon that we 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:37.800 can see that's in the visible spectrum. 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:41.920 That's right. Sometimes when these photons are flying around, they 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:46.640 will collide with other atoms, and sometimes those atoms absorb 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:49.560 that photon's energy and then kick it up to that 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:50.440 higher level. 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:53.800 Again, right, But it has to be from what I understand, 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:56.079 and I saw that there's like of course it's science, 0:12:56.080 --> 0:13:00.800 so there's like atomic science, so there's little exceptions. Did 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:03.040 this and that? Sure, But from what I could see, Chuck, 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:08.600 there is the energy of that photon has to exactly 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:14.360 match the energy differential between one orbital and another on 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:17.240 an atom so that it can kick it up, so 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:20.040 that it hits that one electron in the lower orbital 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:23.000 kicks it up to the higher orbital and thus transfers 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:27.360 its energy, which means that atom just absorbed that energy 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:29.960 that that photon was carrying. Right, But if it's a 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:32.280 little less, it's not going to have the energy to 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:35.120 kick that electron up, which makes sense to me, right. 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:38.040 But if it's a little more, this is what doesn't 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:41.319 make sense to me. It doesn't kick the electron up, 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:45.600 and then the photon carries on in a diminished energetic state. 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:48.760 It just doesn't do anything. It doesn't interact with that. 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:52.679 It has to be exactly, say, like the energy differential 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:55.960 between orbits is eight, so a photon has to have 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:58.800 an energy of eight or else it's not going to 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:00.600 do anything with that atom. 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:06.920 That's right, Okay, And so depending on the well, let's 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:09.160 say you have a radio wave. They don't have very 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:13.079 much energy, so they can't move electrons between these orbitals. 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:16.280 They just pass through things. X rays are super powerful. 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:19.960 There's lots of energy, so they can pass through things, 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:22.360 which is key if you want to check out your 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:24.520 bones from outside of your body. 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:33.640 It is and we're gonna explain exactly how right after this. Okay, 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:36.480 so we're back, Chuck, and you tantalized everybody by saying 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:40.560 that this difference in absorption is what produces X rays, right, 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:44.440 was that tantalizing? I was tantalized, okay, and I even 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:46.960 know it's coming, all right, that's how excited I am 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:47.720 about X rays. 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:48.000 Good. 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:55.520 So consider this, Like different atoms have different atomic weights, 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:59.840 they have different densities, they're just different, like different atoms are. 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:07.200 And atoms also have what are called differences in radiological density. Right, Okay, 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:12.880 So a really high energy, high atomic weight, very dense 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:15.960 atom is going to be able to absorb a lot 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:19.760 of energy. Smaller atoms that maybe are looser and have 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:22.320 a lower atomic weight are going to get kicked around 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:25.480 by any old photon that wants to come along. 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:28.640 Yeah, and that's key. Like I said, if you want 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:31.360 to see bones because your soft tissue, if you've ever noticed, 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:33.720 when you have an X ray, you'll see the bones, 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:36.360 but you know the rest is sort of a grayish 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:40.520 black mess exactly because your soft tissue has smaller atoms. 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:45.080 Your bones calcium atoms are much larger, so they're going 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:47.440 to absorb those X ray photons. 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:48.520 It's exactly right. 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:49.480 They do it really well. 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:54.760 Exactly. So imagine you have let's say, Chuck, let's go 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:57.360 back and hang out with tuk tuk. Right, oh, man, 0:15:57.480 --> 0:15:58.480 let's get back in the way back. 0:15:58.680 --> 0:15:59.320 It's been a while. 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:10.440 Okay, look at him over there. 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:13.800 So here we are in France in this cave, Tucktook 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.600 has his hand up against the cave wall, as you'll see, 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:19.960 and in his other hand he's got that little straw 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:24.800 filled with pigment, red pigment. He's blowing it on his hand, right, 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:28.560 And now that he moves his hand away, there's the 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:29.760 outline of his hand. 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:32.000 It's called a stencil, right exactly. 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:35.120 He's just made an early stencil. He's like a banksy, 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:38.280 basically like a caveman banksy. But if you look at 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:40.440 the back of Tuktok's hand, don't get too close, but 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:42.760 look at the back of his hand, it's covered in 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:46.040 red pigment. Right, So if you can, if you want 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:51.280 to equate this to an X ray, the hand absorbed 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:54.960 all of that pigment, and the stuff that passed through 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:58.280 left the picture on the cave wall. That's kind of 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:01.320 what happens with an X ray, except with an X 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:05.399 ray photograph. The X ray photons are absorbed by the 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:10.359 denser calcium rich bones, yes, and they pass through the 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:13.400 softer tissue. So the picture that we have is the 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:17.680 outline the silhouette of the bones because the X rays 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:20.640 made it through the tissue. Didn't make it through the bones. 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:22.600 They made it through the tissue and onto the X 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:25.520 ray plate, which absorbed the picture in negative. 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:28.120 That's right. And I'm glad you said picture, because that's 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:30.400 all it is. On the other side of the human being. 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:33.920 You know that they're shooting the X ray at there's 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:37.920 a camera and you're just gonna get a regular negative, 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:40.160 and they could make it a positive, but they leave 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:42.399 it as a negative because you really don't need the 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:46.159 positive image, right, And that's what they'll put on that 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:48.600 little screen to show you your cracked femur. 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:52.000 Exactly, And they can see the crack because some of 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:54.960 those X rays will make it through the gap. That's right, right, 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:58.200 So all you're seeing is the result of X rays 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:02.679 that made it through the tissue. We're absorbed by the bone, 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:05.720 so those don't make it to the plate. The ones 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:07.760 that make it to the plate cause the chemical reaction 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:10.320 that gives you your negative, your X ray. And it's 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:12.840 it's pretty simple, really like if you think about it, 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:18.879 at least in principle. It's also extraordinarily difficult to conceive of. 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:23.000 But if you understand like the principle behind it, it 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:24.480 makes uttering complete sense. 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:27.960 Yeah, And it's a pretty focused shot that they're using there. 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:30.399 It's not like they don't fill the entire room with 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:33.520 X rays. You know. They've got a thick lead shield 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:38.040 around the whole device and it you know, contains everything, 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:40.600 and it's got a little small window that's just gonna 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:44.119 let that narrow beam pass through through a series of 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:47.399 filters and basically hit you wherever they want to hit you. 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:50.200 Yeah, And the reason that they use lead is because 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:56.359 lead is an extremely dense element, yeah element, yes, right, sure, 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.919 Oh gotta hope, so with a very high atomic no, 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:02.199 which means it can absorb tons of energy. 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:04.520 Right, Yeah, that's why you're gonna wear a lead apron 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:07.880 if you're not you know, if you're getting your skull done, 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:09.880