X - rays

X-rays Also called Roentgen rays after their discoverer (1895) W.K. Roentgen invisible radiation of the electromagnetic spectrum of very short wavelengths, produced in commercial X-rays machines by bombarding a tungsten metal target with a beam of electrons from a heated cathode.

X-rays are very penetrating and are used in medicine to human body. The rays are passed through the body into a photographic plate, on which bones and flesh can be distinguished. The latest computerized X-ray scanners can olso reveal details of soft body tissues. In crystallography, X-rays are used to investigate atomic structure. The ordered crystal lattice diffracts X-rays in a characteristic way, from which the crystal structure can be inferred.