But Did You Collimate?

Harder Isn’t Always Better… Beams, That Is. 😏Who knew a pair of completely useless rental curtains could lead to an existential crisis about radiographic physics?In this episode of But Did You Collimate?, we're getting into beam hardening, filtration, and the absolute audacity of physics to tell us that improving our x-ray beam can actually DECREASE contrast.Excuse me?! We're removing the bad photons, reducing unnecessary patient dose, and somehow making something worse? Make it make sense.Welcome to the segment, WHAT THE FILTER?!, where we tackle the difference between subject, radiographic, and displayed contrast, explain why Google can't seem to agree with itself, and discover why our photons aren't actually hitting the gym.Along the way, expect questionable curtains, disappointing burritos, and an unreasonable number of opportunities to say "harder" and "penetration" in an educational setting.Because apparently, being a radiologic technologist means discussing beam hardening with a straight face.Physics is weird. Radiography is full of trade-offs. And harder isn't always better.Beams, people. We're talking about beams. 🎙️🩻For more fun... check out my website:www.radiantlightlearning.org

✈️ The Mile High Photon Club: Some Penetrate. Some Don't.In this episode, we're talking penetration (the radiation kind, behave yourselves), photoelectric absorption, and Compton scatter. Join us as we follow X-ray photons on their questionable travel adventures, where some reach their destination, others disappear entirely, and a few somehow end up in Cleveland.It's radiation physics with a side of turbulence, terrible airline experiences, and absolutely no guarantee your luggage will arrive.🩻 But Did You Collimate? Because physics doesn't have to be painful.For more fun, check out my website:www.radiantlightlearning.org

If this goes up… what happens to that?This episode, we’re investigating the relationships that make radiologic physics unnecessarily suspicious. Frequency, wavelength, energy, voltage, current, resistance, and transformers are all getting questioned.No equations were harmed in the making of this episode.🎵 Music & Sound CreditsMusic and sound effects used in this episode were sourced from royalty-free and/or Creative Commons libraries, including Pixabay, Mixkit, and Freesound. Individual creators and attribution are credited where required by their respective licenses.Frog Legs Rag, by James Scott (freemusicarchive.org)Operation Biscuit by Alex GrohlFast Talkin by Kevin MacLoed (incompetech.com) 

Mama… where do X-rays come from? 🥺In this episode, we’re having the talk. The birds, the bees, the cathode, the anode… and what happens when electrons get hot, single, and extremely attracted to tungsten.We’re breaking down X-ray production, from thermionic emission and space charge to Bremsstrahlung and characteristic radiation, without making you memorize another physics paragraph.Permission slips signed? Good. Let’s talk about where baby X-ray photons come from.For more fun checkout my website: www.radiantlightlearning.org

Episode 1: So… Why Are We Here?Welcome to Did You Collimate?, a podcast about radiology, imaging science, physics, and all the things you were told to memorize without anyone really explaining why. In this first episode, Lielie talks about why physics deserves better than endless formulas and up/down arrows, then dives into the first It’s Probably Scatter segment to explore why a digital image can look fantastic even when the exposure indicator is quietly having a crisis. Along the way: collimation, scatter, detector exposure, missing markers, and absolutely no solving for x.For more fun, check out my website:www.radiantlightlearning.org