Question

Please explain this simply for me!

Medical x-rays, with a wavelength of about 10^(-10) m, can penetrate completely through your skin.

a. Ultraviolet rays, which cause sun burn by penetrating only the top level of skin, have a wavelength about 1,000 times the wavelength of an x-ray. Find the wavelength of ultraviolet rays. Show your work.

Answer 1

medwave*1000 id assume

Answer 2

10^-10 x 1000
100 = 10^3

so
10^-10 x 10^3

add exponents...

10^-7 m

am i right?

Answer 3

looks right to me

Answer 4

Thanks! There's a second part -
b. The wavelengths of visible light are between 3.8 x 10^(-7) m and 7.6 x 10^(-7) m. Are these wavelengths longer or shorter than the ultraviolet rays? Explain.

Answer 5

ultraviolet rays is 0.000010 m

0.00000038<visible light<0.00000076

which do you think is longer/shorter?

Answer 6

Ultraviolet rays?

Answer 7

*are longer.

Answer 8

yeah...i think so too...but you're the med student here :D

Answer 9

XD I'm not a med student, I'm just in Algebra 1...

Answer 10

of all the examples why this -____- your teacher is good....at torture >:))

Answer 11

I know, I know. and I hate Algebra on top of this all, it's confusing. The next question confuses me even more! DX

Answer 12

try me ;D

Answer 13

I'll post it...

Answer 14

Wait a second. You just calculated that UV light has wavelengths of \( 10^{-7} \) meters. That is:
\[ 1 \times 10^{-7} \ m \]
Then you're told that visible light has wavelengths such as
\[ 3.8 \times 10^{-7} m \] and \[ 7.6 \times 10^{-7} \ m \]
Clearly therefore, because 3.8 > 1 and 7.6 > 1, visible light has a longer wavelength.

Answer 15

But the lengths that are being compared are ultraviolet and medical x-ray.

Answer 16

james has a point...

Answer 17

Yes. I just showed you why visible light has a longer wave length. Do you agree with that?

Then because
\[ 10^{-10} < 10^{-7} \]
it must be that x-rays also have a shorter wave length than visible light.

Answer 18

Ohhh. I think I see...