Third Grade
Worksheets
How Do X-Rays Work?
Caption: This is an x-ray of a child. The darker spot is a toy she swallowed. Photo from NASA.
Have you ever broken a bone and needed an X-ray? Doctors take an X-ray to see if a bone is broken or cracked. Then they know if you will need a cast and how the cast should fit. It's like taking a picture of you, but it doesn't look like you on the outside! X-rays take pictures of your insides. If your mom thinks your little brother swallowed his toy car, he can get an X-ray. The picture will show a metal toy inside your brother's stomach. How do X-rays work?
X-rays are like the rays of light you see from the sun. X-rays have higher energy than the light we can see, but they are both forms of electromagnetic energy. Waves of electromagnetic energy are all around us. Some of it is visible light. Some of it is radio waves. Some is microwaves. And some of it is X-rays.
