Can radioactive fallout make right turns?
I know this sounds stupid, but somewhere I read that radioactive fallout cannot make right turns. Is this true?
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"Fallout" is radio active dust from a near ground, or ground burst nuclear weapon. The dust is ground heavily irradiated, and the remains of the bomb. Its dust. Dust get blown EVERYwhere, including round corners.
RADIATION DOES travel "in straight" lines, and Alpha and beta radiation don't take much shielding.
RADIATION DOES travel "in straight" lines, and Alpha and beta radiation don't take much shielding.
Jul 9, 2010. 9:47 AMTheZuke!
says:
The Army taught me in NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) Warfare school back in 1976 that gamma rays travel in a straight line... BUT, they are so small they can easily ricochet off of an atmospheric molecule! Therefore: just having a thick sheet of lead between you and the source will shield you from the oncoming rays, but rays that travel past the sides of the shield can get to you by this ricochet action.
I think you're thinking of Compton scattering, just one of several ways that gamma rays interact with matter. Although it is not obvious to me what type of matter would make a good (or poor) gamma ray reflector. More here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_ray#Matter_interaction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compton_scattering
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q="gamma+ray+mirror"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_ray#Matter_interaction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compton_scattering
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q="gamma+ray+mirror"
Nov 16, 2010. 6:57 PMTheZuke!
says:
Hmmm, I probably was mistaking gamma for alpha as in the ricochet action in Rutherford's Gold Foil Experiment.
Jul 9, 2010. 5:11 PMframistan
says:
Please read steveastrouk's answer... He deserves "best answer" on this. The confusion comes from RADIATION verses DUST fallout. Both are deadly, but The dust can go anywhere, as steve says.
. I think you are talking about gamma rays not fallout. Gamma rays travel in a straight line. Fallout goes whichever way the wind blows.
I think you're thinking of vampires, not fallout. Vampires can't cross running water or enter a home uninvited, but right turns are OK unless they violate one of the above conditions. A right turn into the doorway of someone's houseboat would be totally impossible for a vampire (unless they're one of the sparkly kind, maybe).
Yes, but only after coming to a complete stop and giving right-of-way to any fallout approaching from its left. (But not in New York).
(Some types of radioactive particles can be reflected. So if a radioactive article encountered a flat reflective surface tilted across its path from the left at 45 degrees, it would indeed make a right turn.)
(Some types of radioactive particles can be reflected. So if a radioactive article encountered a flat reflective surface tilted across its path from the left at 45 degrees, it would indeed make a right turn.)
Jul 9, 2010. 1:41 AMcdubnbird
says:
perhaps you mean can the radiation from nuclear fallout make turns? like steveastrouk pointed out nuclear fallout would simply be dust. imagine if you took a handful of flour and threw it up in the air. would it make right turns? if it does then i guess nuclear fallout does too and if not vice-versa. the radiation itself travels in a straight line out from the radioactive particle, but it travels out from every direction from the radioactive particle. like sunlight coming out of the sun the radiation comes out from everywhere not just one point.
Jul 8, 2010. 10:48 PMJamesRPatrick
says:
If that statement were true, it would mean that fallout can't make three left turns(AKA one right turn). Fallout obviously doesn't travel in a perfectly straight line, so it has to make a right turn somewhere. Or maybe because of the negative effects of nuclear fallout, none of it turns are right; they're all wrong. Or maybe a common genetic disorder of nuclear fallouts is the Zoolander Syndrome.
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