Safety and the Inverse Square Law- An Important Rule of Thumb in Health Physics

Citations

Pixabay

https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/radsafety130/chapter/inverse-square-law/

The distance from an energy source is investely proportional to exposure. A source exposure (radiation source or sound source for example) is expressed as 1/ (distance)^2.

Time, distance and shielding all play a role when reducing one's exposure to a hazard. The further you are from a source, the less exposure you take. When dealing with a radiation source, your exposure is 1/ (distance)^2. The takeaway is that you should maintain distance from a physical hazard, but this does not relate to a biological hazard.

The Inverse Square Law helps us to take exposure into perspective when dealing with a source. This is generally useful for a "point source" that we can identify.

It is interesting that energy sources and even gravity tend to adhere to this rule. The way to protect humans from exposure is time, distance and shielding and the Inverse square law plays a role in health physics.

Posted in Hive and Steemit