I’ve had a few MRIs so far in my life and have always wondered (in simple terms) how does the MRI work? How does it get such detailed images?
In: Technology
Hydrogen in water have one proton that spins around on its axis like a spinning top. An MRI scanner makes the protons in hydrogen align in one direction it then uses another magnetic field to tip over the protond like when a spinning top starts to loose momentum and no longer points upwards. The tipped over proton spin at a certain frequency and can then induce a current in an Arial (those things they put over your body part being scanned) and be mathematically turned into a picture.
The frequency they spin at can be manipulated to highlight or remove certain things on the picture like water or fat to help the diagnosis. The sounds you hear is the magnetic fields working away which causes themselves to vibrate causing the noise.
Basically it can picture water and most the body is water, its not good at picturing the lungs as there is not much water. The detail of the image is determined on how much time you are willing to wait as it has to wait for the protons to be tipped over and recover again and again hence why they take so long.
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