EP 316 PHYSICS OF MEDICAL INSTRUMENTATION

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT – III

1) (a) How many electrons flow from the cathode to the anode each second in an X-ray tube with
a tube current of 200mA? (b) If the tube voltage is constant and equals 100kV, at what
rate (power) is energy delivered to the anode?
2) (a)What kinetic energy do electrons possess when they reach the target of an X-ray tube
operated at 250 kV? (b) Calculate the minimum wavelength of X-ray photons generated at 250
kV.
3) An abdominal radiograph uses 1013 photons to expose a film with an area of 0.15 m 2 during an
exposure time of 0.1 s. All photons have an energy of 40keV. Find (a) the photon fluence, (b) the
photon flux, (c) the energy fluence and (d) the intensity.

4) If a dose of 5 cGy is delivered uniformly to the uterus during a diagnostic X-ray examination,
how much energy is absorbed by each gram of the uterus?

5) During an exposure of 0.02 C/kg, how much energy is absorbed per kg of air? (Hint: The energy
absorbed in an air during an exposure is, Ex=33.85 J/kg).

6) The mass-energy absorption coefficient of air is 2.8x10-3 m2/kg for photons of 1.0 MeV. (a)
What is the energy fluence required for an exposure of 0.03 C/kg? (b) What is the photon
fluence for this exposure?

7) (a) What exposure is produced if a 1-cm3 volume of air is exposed to a photon (say x-ray)
fluence of 1015 photons/m2? (b) Each photon has an energy of 3-MeV, the density of air ρair =
1.29 kg/m3, and the total mass absorption coefficient of air is 2.8x10-3 m2/kg for photons at
this energy. What is the dose of x-rays that this volume of air received?

8) The number Iat of photons attenuated (absorbed or scattered) from the beam is
Iat = I0-I=I0(1-e-µx), µ = τ + σ

where µ is the total linear attenuation coefficient; τ is the attenuation due to photoelectric
absorption and σ is the attenuation due to Compton scattering.

A narrow beam containing 2,000 monoenergetic photons is reduced to 1,000 photons by a slab of
copper 10-2 m thick. (a) What is the total linear attenuation coefficient of the copper slab?
(b) To the 0.01-m copper slab, 0.02 m of copper is added. How many photons remain in the beam
emerging from the slab?

9) Filtration-effect: In a polyenergetic X-ray beam, lower-energy photons are more likely to be

attenuated and higher energy photons pass through without interaction! The emergent beam
contains fewer photons, but has a higher average photon energy (“harder” beam, with more
penetrating power).
 Removal of low-energy photons leads to increase of penetrating ability. This is achieved by
placing filters of Al (1-3mm), copper, tin, or lead in the beam.

For a polyenergetic beam, no single µ-values may be used. Therefore we define:

µeff = ln2/HVL effective linear attenuation coefficient

(µm)eff = µeff / ρ effective mass attenuation coefficient

The effective energy of an X-ray beam is the energy of monoenergetic photons that have an
attenuation coefficient in a particular medium equal to the µeff in the same medium.

An X-ray beam has an HVL of 1.5 mm Cu. The density of Cu is 8900 kg/m 3. What are the
effective linear and mass attenuation coefficients?

10) Sometimes it is necessary to determine the energy truly absorbed (not the scattered
one too). µen=µEa/h, where µen = energy absorption coefficient

µ = total attenuation coefficient; Ea = average energy absorbed per photon; h = photon energy

The attenuation coefficient for 1-MeV photons in water is 7.1 m-1. If the energy absorption
coefficient for 1-MeV photons in water is 3.1 m-1, find the average energy absorbed in water per
photon interaction.

11) The mass attenuation coefficient of copper is 0.0589 cm 2/g for 1-MeV photons. The number of
photons is reduced to what fraction by a slab of copper 1 cm thick? The density of copper is 8.9
g/cm3.

DEADTIME : 29.11.2017