[sabali (OP)]

Hi I just joined , so take it easy on me ! haha

Anyway i have a few odd questions about Lead that are very important to me.

1. how dense is lead?
2. how thick would a sheet of lead be to block gamma / x ray ray's?
3. how hard would it be to obtain Lead customised to a specific area/dimension.
4. is their different grades of Lead

Thanks , please help!



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[Bored chemist]

Lead is about 11.3 times denser than water so that's11.3 Kg per litre.
It's impossible to say how thick the lead would need to be.
Firstly it depends on the energy of the Xrays or gamma rays; and secondly it doesn't really block them it removes a fraction of them so if a sheet of lead stops half of some Xrays and lets half through then a sheet twice as thick will let a quarter through and so on. 10 sheets will only let through 1 in 1024 of the original radiation, but that might still be more than you want.

Lead is easy to cast or machine to shape. Another option is to make a box from wood or something and fill it with lead shot.

Anything that's mainly lead will do as screening for most purposes.
There are some circumstances where you need to get lead with a very low level of impurities and isotopes that are radioactive.


What do you want it for?

[sabali (OP)]

can i send you my msn or email your obviously alot more intelligent in this matter then me
and your knowedlege would be greatly appreciated.

[Bored chemist]

I don't use MSN and the like.
Feel free to post questions  on this site- that way everybody gets to learn just how little I actually know.