I have always had a hard time grasping this. Radioactivity has many units of measure: Grays, Rads, Rems, Curies, Roentgen, Sieverts, Becquerels.
Why are there so many different unit types, and how do they inter-relate? I have a decent understanding of physics, but not in this specific area. To date I haven’t read or heard an explanation that gives an “ah-ha!” moment or makes me quite understand what all these measures actually mean.
Yes, I have seen the XKCD radioactivity chart.
In: Physics
The term “radioactivity” is used for things that aren’t the same. X-rays are photons whereas alpha and beta radiation is streams of particles.
Initially, the idea was to measure their impact on life. There are existing units for the energy in something, but sometimes more energy isn’t directly related to more dangerous.
Then the idea was to keep consistency with the rest of the SI units. All this gives is lots of units with hard to remember conversion factors.
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