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Ionising Radiation

119 bytes added, 08:49, 8 March 2019
Ionising Atoms
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|[[File:BetaIonise.png|center|500px600px]]
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| style="height:20px; width:500px600px; text-align:centerleft;" |When a [[Beta Particle|Beta minus particle]] interacts with an [[atom]] the [[Beta Particle|beta minus particle]] can pass on some of its [[Kinetic Energy Store|kinetic energy]] to an [[electron]] in the [[Outer Shell|outer shell]] causing the [[electron]] to escape '''ionising''' the [[atom]].
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|[[File:GammaIonise.png|center|500px600px]]
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| style="height:20px; width:500px600px; text-align:centerleft;" |When a [[Gamma-ray|gamma-ray]] interacts with an [[atom]] the [[Gamma-ray|gammarray]] is [[Absorb (Physics)|absorbed]] by an [[electron]] in the [[Outer Shell|outer shell]] causing the [[electron]] to escape '''ionising''' the [[atom]].
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{| class="wikitable"|-|[[File:NeutronIonise.png|center|600px]]|-| style="height:20px; width: 600px; text-align:left;" |[[Neutron Radiation|Neutron radiation]] is referred to as indirectly [[Ionising Radiation|ionising]] because it does not affect the [[electron]]s [[Electron Orbital|orbiting]] an [[atom]] but it can be [[Absorb (Physics|absorbed]] by a [[Atomic Nucleus|nucleus]] making it [[Unstable Isotope|unstable]] and causing it to release a [[gamma-ray]].|}
===Ionising Radiation and Cancer===
: Exposure to '''ionising radiation''' is a [[Risk Factor|risk factor]] in [[cancer]] because '''ionising radiation''' can cause [[DNA]] [[molecule]]s to break. When the [[Cell (Biology)|cell]] tries to repair the [[DNA]] it can make mistakes called [[mutation]]s. If this [[mutation]] tells the [[Cell (Biology)|cell]] to replicate constantly then this becomes [[cancer]].