Components
An X-ray machine is made up of a variety of different components. The main component is the X-ray tube, a long cylinder that's pointed at the part of a patient's body that's going to be X-rayed. Inside this cylinder is an anode, which releases electrons, and a cathode, which absorbs the current of electrons from the anode. The cathode in this case is a circle that's made of the metal tungsten. The result of this energy conduction is a stream of highly energized particles called photons. These photons are channeled through a number of filters until they create a beam of X-ray radiation.
X-rays
When the X-ray radiation is sent out in a beam, it travels through the patient. X-rays are a form of radiation, just like light. Whereas light doesn't penetrate past the skin because it's reflected, X-rays pass through the skin. X-ray radiation is only stopped by dense body tissues, such as bones. It's this property that allows X-rays to take a "picture" of a person's skeleton. When the X-rays travel through the body, they expose a film on the other side of the body. Where the rays hit the film, they turn it black. In the areas where the patient's bones absorbed the energy, they show up white, making a picture of the bone structure.
Safety
Older X-ray machines exposed doctors and patients to a large amount of X-ray radiation. As time has progressed and advances have been made, new safety measures have been implemented. Current X-ray machines only produce radiation for small amounts of seconds (or fractions of a second). Additionally, the beam is tightly focused onto an area of the patient's body. The machine is shielded, and proper precautions such as concrete and lead shielding have been built into hospitals and clinics to stop radiation from moving outward.
Tags: X-ray radiation, have been, patient body, X-ray machines
