why are there so many units of measurement for radiation? Rads, roentgens, greys, severet, and so on?
In: 206
Because they are measuring different things. Some measure how much raw radiation something is giving off(curies, becquerels), some measure how much radiation exposure is in a specific area (roentgen, coulombs/kg), some measure how much radiation is absorbed by something else exposed to the radiation(grays, rads), some measure how much potential harm a biological entity experiences based on exposure and type(sieverts, rems).
In addition, there are multiple units of measurement for some of these things because of the same reason there are multiple units of measurement for length, force, etc. – historical vs. standardized units. A curie and a becquerel are measuring the same thing (radioactivity), but a curie is much, much, much larger because it’s older and scientific instruments kinda sucked back then, so it’s based off of what they could detect.
Latest Answers