MRTY 1031

Medical Radiation Physics

Unit Coordinator: A/Prof. John OByrne
Room 205, Physics Building
9351 3184
john.obyrne@sydney.edu.au

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 Introduction
Lecturers:
John O'Byrne john.obyrne@sydney.edu.au
Elise Pogson elise.pogson@sydney.edu.au
Elaine Ryan elaine.ryan@sydney.edu.au
Textbook
Essential Physics for Radiographers, 4th Edition
(2008), John Ball, Adrian D. Moore and Steve Turner,
Blackwell Publishing (also electronically from Library)
Web sites
http://sydney.edu.au/science/physics/current/jphys/MRTY1031.shtml
eLearning (Blackboard) site from MyUni

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Class times

MRTY 1031 Medical Radiation Physics - L1 3

Timetable partial

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 Assessment
The grading system used in this unit of study is somewhat different
from that used in most other units. It is based on setting appropriate
standards in different types of assessment. ALL assessments are
compulsory.

Your final grade will be based principally on your performance in the

two examination-style assessments where you are working by yourself.
However, ALL assessments contribute to your final grade if you
want to get more than a bare pass.

For example: If you did relatively poorly in the mid-semester test

(7/20), but much better in the final exam (71/80), your total mark for the
two examination-style assessments would be 78%. This is a
Distinction (DI) standard. However, for this to be your final result, you
would also need to achieve at least Distinction standard in ALL your
other assessments
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 Academic Honesty
The Academic Honesty Education Module appears as a compulsory
extra unit of study (AHEM1001) on every new student's eLearning
page.

We strongly advise you to complete this module before your first

assignment.

The initial attempt at each quiz is intended to be challenging, so do not

be discouraged if you get tripped up.

The module will probably take you 30+ minutes but you do not have to
complete it in one sitting because your progress will be saved. It is
available for you to complete until the end of this semester but must
be completed

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 Special Consideration/Arrangements
Special Consideration may be granted where well-documented illness,
injury or misadventure occurs to the student (or someone the student
has carers responsibility for) during semester or the exam period.

Longer term health or emotional issues are best managed with

adjustments to course assessments as part of an Academic Plan
developed in discussion between the student and Disabilities Services.

Special Arrangements may be granted for certain personal

circumstances - for example the birth of a child, or religious or cultural
commitments - or for essential community.

Further information on eligibility, document requirements and how to

apply is available at the Special Consideration web site:
http://sydney.edu.au/current_students/special_consideration/

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Come to lectures!

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 Note these points
Studio lab sessions - closed footware!!!

Weekly quizzes complete before the lecture each week

Read the Unit Outline carefully!

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 Motivation
This unit is about X-rays, where
they come from, their production
and using them for imaging
Shoe fitting X-ray machine

Show x-ray machines. Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons

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Images - Wikimedia Commons
 X-ray of the cervical spine with a Hangman's fracture.
Left without, right with annotation. Clearly can be seen
that C2 (red outline) is moved forward with respect to
C3 (blue outline).

X-ray of a 5 day old baby

For this we need to review some

basic concepts (units, mass, force,
work energy) and some basic
physics, starting with Waves and
EM radiation

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Images - Wikimedia Commons
What qualities make a good
radiographer?

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 Objectives of the lecture

After this lectures you should understand:

Basic concepts
base physical quantities of the SI system and their units
the key concepts of force, work, energy and power

Textbook references:
Chapter 1 General Physics

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 Measurement
What are the units of the measurements?
We use the SI (Systme International) units - mks
system - based mostly on
Length - metre (m)
Mass - kilogram (kg)
Time - second (s)
Electric Current - ampere (A)
Temperature - kelvin (K)
There are also the cgs units, imperial units and US
customary units

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 Prefixes:
1012 tera- T
109 giga- G
106 mega- M
103 kilo- k
10-1 deci- d
Each unit is based on a
standard - e.g. the metre 10-2 centi- c
was defined as one ten 10-3 milli- m
millionth of the distance
from the equator to the 10-6 micro-
pole through Paris. How 10-9 nano- n
is it defined now?
10-12 pico- p
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 Forces
Why does a car stop if you take the foot off the
accelerator?
How do I keep a moving object moving? Forces!

What is a force? - naively, perhaps a push or a pull

What we really see is the effect of a force - e.g. deforming
a tennis ball when hit by a racquet
Force is an agent of change
Force is that which alters motion
Force defies a really satisfactory definition
If you insist on a precise definition of force,
you will never get it RICHARD FEYNMANN (Nobel Laureate)
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 Newtons First Law
Forces make a person or object accelerate (go faster or
slower)?
It is perhaps contrary to usual experience, but the normal
state of motion is to keep doing what you have been doing
Moving objects tend to keep moving
Stationary objects tend to stay stationary
This is Newtons First Law - the Law of Inertia
Every body continues in a state of rest or motion in a
straight line unless it is compelled to change its motion
by external forces exerted upon it.

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 Force is a vector
The unit of force is the Newton (N) = kg.m/s2
Several forces acting at one point on an object act add
up and as a single force - force is a vector

One force exerted

by the stationary
elephant is
balanced by two
forces exerted by
the clowns.

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 Gravity as a Force
Perhaps the most obvious force is gravity - which
produces the acceleration due to gravity (g = 9.8 m/s2)
The gravitational force is directed downward - toward the
centre of the Earth
M earth m
Fgravity = G
r2
The force of gravity between any two objects is
proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to
the square of the distance between them

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 Weight - Gravitational Force

Weight is the downward gravitational force experienced

by an object. The weight force is related to the
acceleration due to gravity (g = 9.8 m/s2)

Fgravitation = m g
We might say a persons weight is 50 kg. We should
say
her mass is 50 kg
her weight is 50 kg x 9.8 m/s2 = 490 N

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 Newtons Second Law
The first law tells us that the motion of an object
changes with the application of a net force - but by
how much?

This is expressed in Newtons Second Law which

we will write as
If a net external force acts on a body, it accelerates.
The direction of the acceleration is the same as
the net force. The mass of the body times the
acceleration equations the net force vector.

F = ma
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 Example

The blocks accelerate

in the direction of F for
as long as the force is
applied.

If there is a net force

then there is an
acceleration
If there is an
acceleration then
there is a net force

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 Newtons Third Law
Newtons Third Law
To every action there is always an equal an opposite
reaction

More precisely:
The interaction of two objects always occurs by way
of two forces
A force of the first object acting on the second,
and
An equal-magnitude and oppositely directed force
of the second object acting on the first

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 Standing still
Weight is an external force acting on a
person. The Earth pulls on the person
and the person pulls on the Earth - an
action-reaction pair.
The person isnt accelerating up or
down, so there must be a force on her
to balance the weight force.
Her weight causes her feet to push on
the ground and so the ground pushes
back on her - another action-reaction
pair.
The forces on her are the weight and the
reaction of the floor - in balance (if the
floor is strong enough!)
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 Energy and Work
Energy derives from the Greek words en (meaning in)
and ergon (meaning work).
Energy is the capacity to do work.
But what does work mean?

In mechanics, work is the change in energy resulting

from the application of a force to an object as the
object moves through a distance in space.
W = Fd

In doing work on an object you are altering its energy

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 Work
At the heart of the concept of
work is the idea of movement
with some force or against some
resistance
In lifting an object, your hand is
doing work to lift the object
against gravity
The work done by your hand to
raise an object a height h
against gravity is
W = Fd
= ( mg)h

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 Energy
The SI unit of work (and energy) is the newton-metre,
known as the Joule (J)

How much energy?

Supernova explosion 1044 J
Earth moving in orbit 1033 J
Earths annual sunshine 1025 J
Severe earthquake 1018 J
Hiroshima atomic bomb 1014 J
Running for an hour 106 J
Hard-hit cricket ball 103 J
Human heartbeat 0.5 J
hopping flea 10-7 J
Photon of light 10-19 J

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 Energy and Power
Another important unit of energy is electron volt the
energy acquired by an electron in moving through a
potential difference of 1 volt.
1 eV = 1.6 x 10-19 J

Power is rate at which energy is used

Units - J/s = Watt

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 Kinetic Energy

Energy associated with motion is called Kinetic Energy

(KE)
1 2
KE = mv
2
Example:
A Boeing 747 weighing 2.2 x 106 N at take-off cruises
at 960 km/h. Calculate its KE.

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 Kinetic Energy
A force acting over a distance results in a change in KE
Your arm can do work on a cricket ball and increase the
balls KE. It travels some distance and then crashes into
the stumps, doing work on them and losing a
corresponding amount of KE.
The ball transports energy in the form of KE from one
place to another

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 Gravitational Potential Energy
An object lifted against gravity still experiences the
downward force of gravity when it is held up, but at rest.
When no longer held up, it will obviously fall.
Energy will appear as KE as it falls, but whats happening
while the object is held motionless, high in the
gravitational field?
Apparently it is possible to do work on a system when
lifting it and not have it appear as KE.
Energy is stored as Gravitational Potential Energy (PE)

PE = mgh

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 Mechanical Energy
Mechanical Energy of a system is defined as the sum of
KE and gravitational PE of all its parts.

If no additional forces (except

gravity) are applied to a
system, no energy is
transferred into or out of the
system, and mechanical
energy is conserved. This is
a limited case of the more
general concept of
conservation of all forms of
energy

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 Next week

Waves and EM radiation

Textbook references:
Chapter 14 Electromagnetic radiation (14.4-14.7)
Chapter 15 Light (15.2)

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