From my understanding, radiation is just gamma rays which are electromagnetic waves with really high frequency (and energy). While I do understand how they can be harmful when exposed to them (killing off cells etc.), I can’t wrap my head around how does something gets contaminated by radiation and continues to be radioactive sometimes for hundreds of years even when the source of the gamma rays is long gone.
In: Physics
These are all very long and sciency explanations so I’m gonna give you an analogy for a 5 year old. Think of it like this: The radioactive substance is like a skunk or something, if you stand next to the skunk you’re gonna smell the bad smell(radiation) if the skunk sprays you then you also now emit the smell because you’ve been contaminated. But if you didn’t get sprayed and stood in the vicinity of a skunk for long enough eventually you’d start to emit the smell too. Basically if something is exposed to radiation for long enough the radiation will break down atoms into radioactive isotopes which then give off radiation. That’s usually over prolonged periods to high radiation though, if its just in the vicinity of radiation for a little while its not likely to become radioactive itself depending on the material.
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