The Only Radiation Units You Need to Know

In order to have a meaningful conversation about the dangers of radiation exposure, it’s important to be clear about just how much radiation we are dealing with. Unfortunately, the units we use are kind of a mess… but SciShow is here with the only two you need to know.

Hosted by: Michael Aranda

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[SciShow]

Correction! At 2:32, the label should say 1 cm^3 not 1 cm^2!

[blacktommer]

I'm pretty sure the only radiation unit I need to know about is the BED (Banana equivalent dose
).

[jeroenjager]

Can we still call it rads though, it's the cool thing to say.

[bstoppel]

And one Grey is the amount of curiosity required to send you across an ocean to answer a seemingly insignificant historical question.

[purplealice]

I received a total of 25 Greys spread out over five weeks when I was being treated for cancer. Since the radiation was directed at my abdomen, I got a small amount of "radiation sickness", nausea and diarrhea, along with light radiation burns. When someone says, "Don't eat that food - it's been irradiated!", my response is, "So have I!" ;-)

[Amigo]

Transmitting signal with ionizing radiation would be a dumb thing to do anyway. It's going to run into something, ionize it, and then your signal is lost.

[sergeant_sailor]

Personally I'm a fan of the Banana Equivalent Dose. It's just so whimsical

[venezuelandragon]

Good video! One small note though, Rad and Rem are the standard units of measure for ionizing radiation in the US. Gray and Sieverts are considered international units of measure like other SI units.

[RabidRekijo]

I don’t need to know about different radiation units I need WATER IN MY REACTOR!

[thomasboys]

So in a nutshell:

The raw energy given off by something: eV (electronvolts)


The number of nuclear decays happening per second: Becquerels
The number of nuclear decays happening in 1 gram of radium-226: Curie

The amount of electrical energy being produced through ionisation of air: Roentgen

How much radiation is being absorbed by your body (energy per kg of mass): Gray (old version - rad)
How much radiation is being absorbed by your body (accounting for radiation type) Sievert (old version - rem)

Have I got that right? This episode was pretty confusing.

[GetGoodAtThat]

Wow, all the different type of measurement really makes this difficult. Thanks for this episode, I did enjoy. Wish you had given more examples of everyday exposures.

[casey]

"its only 3.6 roentgen go back to work comrades"

[EricWilliams]

This was the best explanation of all of the various labels used in describing radioactive energy that I have ever seen.

[theronerdithas]

''37 000 000 000 Becquerels. I'm told it's the equivalent of a chest x-ray.''

[ducatiist]

No field has more units than Radiology... It's downright silly but this video is hands down the best quick explanation I've seen yet.

[clulesskid]

Okay, you got me a bit #triggered here. As a former nuclear engineer (ELT) in the US Navy, I can tell you that rad and rem are not outdated. The civilian world might not use them as much anymore, but the nuclear Navy does. When you take into account all the submarines, aircraft carriers, shipyards, prototypes, and various other shore based facilities that support the nuclear Navy, there's still a lot of people that use rad/rem on the regular.. Saying it's outdated is like saying a book is outdated because everyone uses e-readers or audiobooks.. It's not the newest form, but it's still used a lot.

Aside from that, video still good. Spot on on what radiation is and all that, making it interesting and informational, which is what we really need.

[wolfbd]

3:40 "Gamma particles are the lightest..." I mean, I guess that technically a massless particle is lighter than a matter particle.

[maninspired]

Awesome. Thanks. I worked in the nuclear industry and nuclear navy, and this summary is great.

[theiceana]

Rads arent outdated!





But the Fallout engine is ahem *Todd* ahem

[victor]

Me: oh I only need to understand just 2?
Scishow: well yes, but no.