A medical
X-ray is picture of your body taken by shooting X-ray photons through
you. As the X-rays pass through your body, more of them are absorbed
by your bones than by your organs and soft tissue, so when the X-rays reach
the film, there is a weaker signal where they have passed through bone
material, allowing the doctor to see a picture of your bones. Rather
than referring to such a picture as "a picture taken by shooting X-rays...",
the medical community has shortened it to "X-ray." When high
energy astrophysicists refer to an X-ray, they are talking about an energetic
form of light, not the film that your doctor looks at to diagnose your
broken leg. |