I work at a hospital. I saw a technician doing a chest x ray the other day. He placed the x ray machine at least 5 feet about the patients chest. Wouldn’t this cause the radiation to scatter? How does it only put the lungs in focus then?
In: Engineering
Placing the x-ray source close means that the center of the target (the chest in your case) is closer to it, and therefore receives more radiation than the edges. This leads to a worse image quality and also slightly higher radiation dose.
Instead, they use a piece of metal with a hole in it to block off any radiation going the sides, producing a very narrow beam of radiation. By changing the shape and size of the hole, they can even shape the beam so it only hits what it’s supposed to hit.
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