Magnetic Effects

["Uncle Al" Schwartz]

Robert Harman wrote:

[snip]

> Strictly speaking the radio frequency waves were produced as a sort
> of low frequency ionizing radiation, but the kind of atoms whose electron
> shells would allow for high frequency emissions (like gamma rays) don't
> exist in significant quantities in the human body.  (I worked over last
> summer in the NMR lab at Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, doing an
> analysis of NMR in systems undergoing complex chemical exchange.  I'm
> secondary author on a paper on the subject that should be published by the
> end of this year.)

RF isn't ionizing - it doesn't have the energy/photon.  One hopes to god
you didn't diddle with humans, and the referees set you bungee jumping
with your own small intestine.
 
> : For the curious: As I remember this,  gamma radiation is defined as
> : radiation from nuclear events and things like particle destruction.
> 
> Yeah, that'd be one source.  Gamma rays are just ultra-high frequency
> photons.  Compared to alpha or beta radiation, they're pretty harmless.
> Which is a good thing, given the fact that we're bathed in them pretty
> constantly by sunlight.

Alphas and betas are easily shielded.  Gammas are real trouble.  The
atmosphere is equal in mass/area shielding power to at least 76 cm of Hg
- that's about a meter of lead.  The sun is not a source of gamma
radiation - its a few billion kelvins too cool.

> +--------------------------------------------------+
> |     R Michael Harman, Student of Omniscience     |
> | rmharman at jhu.edu ---- talk r at jhu0253.res.jhu.edu |
> |       http://jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu/~rmharman/       |
> +--------------------------------------------------+

Christ, he's an academic.

-- 
Alan "Uncle Al" Schwartz
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http://www.ultra.net.au/~wisby/uncleal.htm
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