Electromagnetism Impact On Health Care

Electromagnetism and it’s Impact on our Health Car

By: Dalia Newman
Course: Grade 12 Physics
Teacher: Mrs. Chocron
Due: Friday April 15 2011 Electromagnetism and it’s Impact on our Health Care
Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions of nature. It is the force that causes the interaction between electrically charged particles; the areas in which this happens are called electromagnetic fields. It was discovered when it was observed that a copper wire carrying an electric current can magnetize pieces of iron or steel near it. An electromagnet is made from two components, a solenoid, and a ferromagnetic material. The solenoid is an insulated
Many fields of medicine today have benefitted from electromagnetism. The x-ray is the most commonly used medical technology that uses electromagnetic waves. As you can see in the diagram above, x-rays have a wavelength of 10 to 0.01 nanometers. X-rays are used in medicine to view bone structure and density, for example to observe a bone for breaks or fractures. An x-ray machine contains a cathode filament, which is heated inside of a vacuum tube. It releases a stream of electrons that are accelerated by an electrical field. The electrons travel towards an anode target, and once they hit the target they release energy. Most of the kinetic energy released is heat, but some of it is released in the form of x-rays. When the x-rays are produced they fire in all directions, therefore the tube has a small window, forcing the rays to exit in a specific path. The window is facing the patient, and therefore the rays only exit in the direction of the patient. Low energy rays are not useful because the body will absorb all of them. Therefore, x-ray generators come with a metal sheet covering the window through which the rays exit the tube. The metal sheet will filter out all of the weak rays, and the result will be a beam of only high-energy
X-rays are two dimensional, and do not provide any depth to the body being x-rayed. Therefore, doctors trying to read the x-ray cannot see any objects which are being blocked off by other objects. X-rays are accurate for taking a picture of an arm or leg, however most of your body has many intricate bones and organs, making it impossible to attain a clear image. Doctors solved this issue with the invention of the computerized axial tomography scan, more often referred to as the CAT scan. The CAT scan takes photographs of the body using the same technique that the x-ray machine does. However, unlike the x-ray, the CAT scan is a tube that rotates around the body and takes many images from many different vantage points. It uses x-rays to photograph cross sections of the body, as if to slice the body at different points and take pictures of each slice. The images produced are called tomograms. This allows doctors to observe bones and organs from many vantage points, providing depth to the images of the patient’s body. As well, contrast dyes can be injected into the patient’s blood vessels causing them to appear on the scan as well. The dyes are usually metals, such as barium or iodine, which stop x-rays due to their high electron densities, therefore allowing the vessels to appear on the tomogram. CAT scans of internal organs, bones, soft tissue and blood vessels provide greater clarity and reveal more