Can X-rays penetrate bones

X-raysAn X-ray can go through anything. The question is how much of it does that X-ray have to penetrate? An X-ray is a form of high energy electromagnetic radiation, and it has Excellent penetrating power. It is only material with a high density that can shield us against them, and lead is a good example. Concrete is also pretty good, and it's cheap and readily available as a building material.

X-rays come in a range of energies, and some (the higher energy ones) are better at going through stuff than others. X-rays penetrate all things, but go farther into things of lower density. It's a "probability" thing that determines how far X-rays will penetrate. We talk about a half-thickness of a shielding material, and that is the thickness of that material that is required to reduce a given amount of a specific radiation by half. You can see that doubling that amount of shielding will not stop all the radiation, but will still allow a quarter of it to get through.

When chosing a material to shield against X-rays, things with a high density (like lead) will be more effective than less dense materials. Consideration must be given to the source and how it's being used when designing shielding around the X-ray generator.