ABSTRACT
R adiation 101 is not the most titillating topic. Do you really need to hear about the oscillating electric and magnetic elds of electromagnetic radiation or know that alpha particles are made of two protons and two neutrons, equivalent to the nucleus of a helium atom? Do you really need to know how the photoelectric eect works when photons strike the atom, and how Albert Einstein’s explanation of that phenomenon contributed to the quantum revolution in physics and won him the Nobel Prize? Not in this book! But you do need to know how alpha particles or gamma-ray photons can aect you dierently, how you can tell them apart, how far they can reach, and how you can stop them or protect against them. You also need to know how people can be exposed to radiation but not get contaminated.
