Question

There are a couple of physics concepts in your paper that are very important — atomic structure and x-rays. Explain these ideas to the reader in terms that your peers in the class can understand. Feel free to use figures. If you do, be sure to give references.

Notes

X-rays are a form of electromagnetic (EM) waves.

EM waves a bit

what distinguishes x-rays from other kinds of EM waves.

Answer 1

We know that in atoms we have different energy levels, when an electron in higher energy state(excited state) gets into lower energy levels, a photon is released, which has an energy exactly equal to the difference in energy levels. When this difference is large a photo with higher energy is released. Now a photons energy is directly proportional to the frequency. So when a photon with high energy is released we say it has a high frequency. For heavy elements when transition between inner shell occurs, a high energy photon is released.

A photon is a quantum of electromagnetic wave. Electromagnetic waves are characterized by frequency (or wavelength). We can have EM waves with wide range of frequency. X - Rays are also a form of electromagnetic waves which have very high frequency (or short wavelengths). Since they have high frequency,that means photons corresponding to x rays are high energy photons.

So x rays differs from other EM waves in terms of frequency (or wavelength), they have higher frequency than the ultraviolet or visible EM waves. However there exists one other kind of EM waves, gamma rays which have even higher energy than x rays, gamma rays are produced in transition between energy level of nucleus, where energy is in order of MeV as compared to electronic transitions where x-rays are released and energy is in order of KeV.