What is the difference between cathode ray and x-ray?

Answer 1

Compared to X-rays, gamma rays have a higher energy, have a higher frequency, and have a shorter wavelength.

The difference between gamma rays and X-rays is in the frequency of the electromagnetic radiation. Gamma rays and X-rays are both types of electromagnetic radiation, but gamma rays are higher on the electromagnetic frequency spectrum. Gamma rays have more energy than X-rays. Use the links below for more information.

More specific answer: The answer above is true to a rudimentary level. However, if you look at the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum, X-ray and gamma rays overlap over a certain range. At this point, the two rays are identical in terms of EM properties (at any given point on the spectrum, the energy, frequency, and wavelength of the EM wave are directly proportional).

For example, a 140 MeV X-ray is identical to a 140 MeV gamma ray. Any wave/photon with the same energy is also going to have the same wavelength and frequency. (Use the equation E=h*c/lambda, where h is planck's constant, c is the speed of light, and lambda is the wavelength.

As a result, the only difference between ALL x-rays and gamma rays are the origin of the ray itself. X-rays originate from the electron shell, gamma rays originate from the nucleus. This is the true definition of what the difference is between X-rays and gamma rays.

It is not enough to say that gamma rays are higher up than x-rays on the EM spectrum. ONLY SOME ARE.

What happens is that, in the case of gamma rays, the photon results when the nucleus comes down from the excited state that results from some kind of nuclear reaction, such as alpha decay, beta decay, fission, fusion, or some other kind of interaction that does something to excite the nucleus. The resulting energy of that photon is the step-wise change of the nucleus in coming down back to the state it "wants" to have.

In the case of x-rays, the electron cloud also has a ground state, where all of the positions in all of the shells are filled, up to the limits of the available electrons. If you add energy to the cloud, electrons move up, and we call that an excited state. It wants to come back down. As each electron comes back down, it emits a photon, again with an energy corresponding to the energy of the transition. If there was only one electron that was excited, then there will only be one photon, but if all of them were excited, then there will be multiple photons as each of them, in order, falls back into their desired positions, much like a string of dominoes. The best example of this is K capture, where an inner (K) shell electron is captured into the nucleus, perhaps to contribute to beta+ decay, followed by a chain of x-ray photons as the electron cloud rushes to a new ground state.

Answer 2

Cathode rays are a beam of electrons emerging from the cathode (the negative terminal) within an electron tube. If there is not a very good vacuum within the tube the path of the electrons can be seen from their interactions with the residual gas in the tube. Electrons are actual particles with mass and charge. X-rays are not charged particles but massless electromagnetic radiation, same thing as very short wavelength light. X-rays can be produced by the deceleration of electrons, by atomic electrons quantum jumping to a lower energy state, from atomic nuclei via radioactivity, and other processes.

Answer 3

Cathode Ray:- A light ray before touching any metal is called a cathode ray and it is in green colour.

X-Ray:- A cathode ray after touching any hard metal produce X-rayand it is in white colour.

Answer 4

The distinction between Gamma Rays and X-rays is purely semantic. X-rays are man-made while gamma comes from natural processes.

This is the order of the Electromagnetic Spectrum from weakest to strongest

Radio

Microwaves

Infrared

Visible Light

UV RAYS

X-rays and Gamma Rays

Answer 5

in two ways: their origin, and their wavelength.

X-rays were discovered by accelerating electrons through a vacuum and letting them hit a metal electrode. The braking of the electrons releases electromagnetic radiation (photons), each photon has energy roughly equal to the kinetic nergy an electron lost in braking, so the wavelength of the radiation depends on the voltage you run the electrons through.

Gamma rays were discovered by using a magnet to separate the stream of radiation coming from a radioactive sample into positively-charged ("alpha ray"), negatively-changed ("beta ray"), and uncharged ("gamma ray") rays. The gamma ray turned out to be electromagnetic radiation, photons produced in nuclear reactions and carrying off the excess energy released by them. The wavelength of a gamma ray depends on the characteristic energy release of the reaction that produces it.

After these things were discovered and named it was some time before they were shown to be the same kind of thing as one another, light, radio waves etc. The result is that both terms have two senses. In one sense, an x-ray is a photon produced by the sudden braking of a charged particle, as when it hits something. In another sense, it is any photon with the characteristic properties of a classic x-ray, which means any photon with a wavelength shorter than that of ultraviolet light but longer than that of a gamma ray. In one sense, a gamma ray is any photon released by an atomic nucleus (such as during fission, fusion, etc.) or similar reaction other than braking. In another sense, a gamma ray is any photon with the energy and wavelength of a typical gamma ray, i.e. shorter than an x-ray.

Short answer: the differences are on one hand that x-rays have longer wavelength (less energy per photon) than gamma-rays, and on the other hand that gamma-rays are produced by particle annihilations and events in the nuclei of atoms.

Answer 6

Visible light and X-rays are both forms of electromagnetic radiation. The human eye is adapted to seeing the former and not the latter. X-rays have a tremendously shorter wavelength and correspondingly higher energy. X-rays can pass through many substances (but not all substances) which are opaque to visible light.

Answer 7

X-rays and radio waves are both electromagnetic waves, but 'radio waves' usually refers to electromagnetic waves up to around 300GHz in frequency while x-rays are at a much higher frequency.

Answer 8

Infrared radiation is of a much lower frequency (and a longer wavelength) than X-rays.

Answer 9

Compared to X-rays, gamma rays are more energetic, have a higher frequency, and a smaller wavelength.