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The special thing about X-rays is that they can go through soft material like skin and flesh, and they show up harder things like bones. When doctors first found out about this they were very excited, because it meant they could look at people's bones to see if they were broken. This is a very early x-ray of a person's hand. |
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Dentists find them very useful too, because you can see the metal filling in a tooth, and it is much clearer than the tooth. Dentists take x-rays to see if there is any decay in your teeth, which needs to have a filling. In these teeth, you can see the part that is right in the gum, and you can see the nerve going down the tooth. (That's the bit that hurts when you have toothache!) |
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Scientists use x-ray photos of stars, to see the energy that is coming out of the star that our eyes can't see. This is an x-ray photo of our sun. It looks rather different from usual, doesn't it? The x-ray photo lets us see the hotter parts, and the cooler parts, and also the energy that is pouring away from the surface of the sun. |
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At airports, x-ray machines are used to look through luggage to find metal objects. Can you see what is hidden in this luggage? |
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