Q9 CQ
Question
Often, when people have to work around radioactive materials spills, we see them wearing white coveralls (usually a plastic material). What types of radiation (if any) do you think these suits protect the worker from, and how?
Step-by-Step Solution
Verified\({\rm{\alpha }}\) Radiation has small range so plastic material act as shield for these radiation.
The energy that emanates from a source and moves through space at the speed of light is referred to as radiation. This energy has wave-like qualities and is accompanied by an electric field and a magnetic field.
The radiations that are capable of causing ionization of an atom is called Ionizing radiation And the distance that a radiation can travel through material is called range of radiation. The range of radiation depends on the energy of radiation. The more the energy of radiation, the more will be range. Among them\({\rm{\alpha }}\),\({\rm{\beta }}\), \({\rm{\gamma }}\) radiations, the range of \({\rm{\alpha }}\) radiation is smallest and range of \({\rm{\gamma }}\) radiation is greatest. So when the range of \({\rm{\alpha }}\) radiation is small then the plastic material acts as shield to the \({\rm{\alpha }}\) radiation. Also since \({\rm{\alpha }}\) radiation has small range then plastic material can easily absorb the radiation.
Therefore, \({\rm{\alpha }}\) Radiation has small range so plastic material act as shield for these radiation