Why are there multiple names for units to measure radiation? Example: Rems, Greys, millisieverts, terbaqule (sp?)
In: Physics
Grays (Gy) and sieverts (Sv) actually measure different things. Grays tends to be used to measure dose (joules of energy per kilogram of mass) for ionising radiation. Sieverts is the equivalent dose, which means the amount of radiation that would have the same effect on biological tissue as 1Gy of ionising radiation (X or Gamma).
Other than that, different units just exist due to different conventions. It’s like how we could measure length in kiloy (km), Angstroms (Å), parsecs (pc), etc.
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