Everyone knows nuclear radiation is harmful when exceeding a certain limit. Is it different from other forms of radiation such as electromagnetic radiation from electronic devices? Like if I got blasted with some sort of super WiFi would I be harmed in the same way as nuclear radiation?
In: 5
>electromagnetic radiation from electronic devices?
Eh, hold up, you’re off-base on some of the basics here. “Electromagnetic radiation” includes radio waves, light, x-rays, infrared (heat), and the sort ionizing gamma radiation where you get an LD50 of 5 Sieverts if you’re next to a nuclear reactor too long. That’s all the same sort of radiation, just at different frequencies. And that matters a lot. Above a certain level it’s called “ionizing” because it’s wiggling fast enough to knock electrons off, which can hit your DNA and stuff.
Radiation that isn’t electromagnetic is stuff like sound waves and apparently gravity now. Or things that throw off charged particles, like some nuclear decay. Any amount of shielding stops charged particles, they’re too bulky to get through. Just don’t swallow it.
> Like if I got blasted with some sort of super WiFi would I be harmed in the same way as nuclear radiation?
Wifi? That’s down in the radio range. LESS frequencies than light. All the home wifi routers (and your phone) is in milliwatts. Relax, it’s safe. If you’re in front of a big radio transmitter or such that’s outputting multiple watts of power, that’s can be harmful. At that frequency, it’ll heat you up and it’ll burn. But it won’t scramble your DNA like gamma radiation.
Long story short: Yes it’s different and no it won’t hurt you the same way.
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