Radiography facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Radiography

Radiography of the knee in a modern X-ray machine.

Radiography is the name for the use of X-rays to see what is happening to parts of the body. It is an imaging technique which uses electromagnetic radiation other than light, usually X-rays.

To create the image, a beam of X-rays is produced by an X-ray machine and is projected toward the object. A certain amount of X-ray is absorbed by the object, which is dependent on the density and composition of that object. The X-rays that pass through the object are captured behind the object by a detector (either photographic film or a digital detector). The detector gives a superimposed 2D representation of the object's internal structures.

Tomography

Tomography is a more advanced technique. In tomography, the machine blurs out structures not in the focal plane. This gives a series of pictures, like a set of slices through the body. It is called CT scanning, or computer tomography. The computer builds a 3-D picture for the expert to look at.

Radiography has many medical and industrial uses.

Images for kids

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  Angiogram showing a transverse projection of the vertebro basilar and posterior cerebral circulation.

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  Radiography may also be used in paleontology, such as for these radiographs of the Darwinius fossil Ida.

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  A plain radiograph of the elbow

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  A hand prepared to be X-rayed

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  Taking an X-ray image with early Crookes tube apparatus, late 1800s

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  The first radiograph

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  1897 sciagraph (X-ray photograph) of Pelophylax lessonae (then Rana Esculenta), from James Green & James H. Gardiner's "Sciagraphs of British Batrachians and Reptiles"