X-ray technology was invented completely by accident. In 1895, a German physicist named Wilhelm Roentgen made the discovery while experimenting with electron beams in a gas discharge tube. Roentgen noticed that a fluorescent screen in his lab started to glow when the electron beam was turned on. This response in itself wasn't so surprising -- fluorescent material normally glows in reaction to electromagnetic radiation -- but Roentgen's tube was surrounded by heavy black cardboard. Roentgen assumed this would have blocked most of the radiation.
( if you are completely lost in what you are reading so far, STOP reading!! I'll explain it to you later in easier terms :) ) LOL!!!
I understanding this because I work in radiology :P
Roentgen placed various objects between the tube and the screen, and the screen still glowed. Finally, he put his hand in front of the tube, and saw the silhouette of his bones projected onto the fluorescent screen. Immediately after discovering X-rays themselves, he had discovered their most beneficial application.
Roentgen's remarkable discovery precipitated one of the most important medical advancements in human history. X-ray technology lets doctors see straight through human tissue to examine broken bones, cavities and swallowed objects with extraordinary ease
X-rays are basically the same thing as visible light rays. Both are wavelike forms of electromagnetic energy carried by particles called photons . The difference between X-rays and visible light rays is the energy level of the individual photons. This is also expressed as the wavelength of the rays.
Our eyes are sensitive to the particular wavelength of visible light, but not to the shorter wavelength of higher energy X-ray waves or the longer wavelength of the lower energy radio waves.
Visible light photons and X-ray photons are both produced by the movement of electrons in atoms. Electrons occupy different energy levels, or orbitals, around an atom's nucleus. When an electron drops to a lower orbital, it needs to release some energy -- it releases the extra energy in the form of a photon. The energy level of the photon depends on how far the electron dropped between orbitals.
When a photon collides with another atom, the atom may absorb the photon's energy by boosting an electron to a higher level. For this to happen, the energy level of the photon has to match the energy difference between the two electron positions. If not, the photon can't shift electrons between orbitals.
They have too much energy.
They can, however, knock an electron away from an atom altogether. Some of the energy from the X-ray photon works to separate the electron from the atom, and the rest sends the electron flying through space. A larger atom is more likely to absorb an X-ray photon in this way, because larger atoms have greater energy differences between orbitals -- the energy level more closely matches the energy of the photon. Smaller atoms, where the electron orbitals are separated by relatively low jumps in energy, are less likely to absorb X-ray photons.
The soft tissue in your body is composed of smaller atoms, and so does not absorb X-ray photons particularly well. The calcium atoms that make up your bones are much larger, so they are better at absorbing X-ray photons.
health.howstuffworks.com/medicine/tests-treatment/x-ray.htm
