Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: erickejah on 13/03/2009 14:36:36
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Are there any differences between the magnetic flux and the radioactive flux?
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Yes they are very much different.
Magnetic flux is the field strength of a magnetic field. Radioactive flux is the radiation amplitude one could measure with a Geiger Counter. This would probably be fast neutrons and possibly alpha particles and other nuclear debris. Radioactive flux is very dangerous and should be avoided.
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Is that it? what about the units, are those the same?
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The units are not the same either. I'm not an expert in the field of radiation measure but I think the units of measure is the rad. It is accumulative and people who risk exposure to radiation wear a tag that measures their accumulative exposure.
I usually think of magnetic field strength in terms of gauss units of magnetic force. Wiki seems to like the term Weber and tesla.
Magnetic flux, represented by the Greek letter Φ (phi), is a measure of quantity of magnetism, taking into account the strength and the extent of a magnetic field. The SI unit of magnetic flux is the weber (in derived units: volt-seconds), and the unit of magnetic field is the weber per square meter, or tesla.
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In radiation terms the flux is the number of particles passing through (or striking) a unit area per unit time. Rad is an absorbed dose, not a flux.
One rad is equal to an absorbed dose of 100 ergs/gram or 0.01 joule/kilogram
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part020/part020-1004.html
(REM, another common radiation term, is a dose equivalent that takes into account how concentrated the energy deposition will be)
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You can have all sorts of flux - it's just a description of the 'amount of' something which can be regarded as 'flowing' or even just 'pointing' (in the case of a vector field).
I like the Tesla for flux density because it is stated in terms of an easily conceived technique and with quantities you can measure easily: Force per unit length of a current carrying wire.
Flux was used, in olden days, to refer to stuff flowing out of your bowels! "I suffered from the bloody flux." Nasty.