X-Rays

In 1895, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, a German physicist observed, while doing some experiments with the discharge tube, that when cathode rays are allowed to fall on a metal target called anticathode placed in their path, a new kind of rays are produced. These radiations are called X-rays.

Production of X-rays

Properties of X-rays

• They travel in straight lines.

• They remain undisturbed in an electric as well as magnetic field.

• They can pass through opaque objects such as black paper.

• They can affect a photographic plate.

They are, in fact, electromagnetic waves of very short wavelength.

Uses of X-rays

This has created a revolutionary change in medical sciences. It can take pictures of fractures in bones and diagnose problems such as lung infection etc.