BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays

Subject: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 24 Oct 08 - 12:08 PM

I'm putting a link to this article simple because this phenomenon is totally unexpected. I have encountered X-ray produced by huge white machines, and I have read of X-rays produced by violent astronomical processes, but I never would have dreamed that Scotch tape produces X-rays.

(I am not here to debate the terms Scotch vs Scots vs Scottish.)


AP article about X-rays

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 24 Oct 08 - 12:29 PM

Wow! If you can get X-rays from Scotch tape, imagine what you could get from a tube of Gorilla Glue! Probably be able to power lasers capable of shooting down ballistic missiles.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Bill D
Date: 24 Oct 08 - 12:35 PM

Great! Cheap X-rays! Only in a vacuum chamber..no problem!
"Now, just hold your breath, sir, while we rotate this roll of tape....hey, Bob...I can't get a good hold on this end of the tape....uh, sir, is your face usually blue?"

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 24 Oct 08 - 03:14 PM

WARNING! PEDANT ALERT!

What are produced (in this case from Scotch Tape) are "X Rays". Note no hyphen.

The machines, and the pictures they make, are "X-rays", with a hyphen. Why?

The researcher, Prof. Roentgen, who discovered and described the phenomenon found there were certain rays created in certain circumstances. They didn't have a name, and so he took "X", for "unknown" and applied it as an adjective--thus, "X rays", or "unknown rays".

Now, the diagnostic approach, machine, and images have in each case a noun--"approach", "machine", "image", "film"--which takes an adjective based on the name of the rays. It's a compound adjective, with two elements joined by a hyphen. Thus, "X-ray film", etc.

END PEDANT RANT

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Oct 08 - 03:15 PM

Wow, I heard this before but thought it was a rhetorical joke.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 24 Oct 08 - 03:49 PM

Gee, thanks for that information, Uncle Dave! Speaking as a person who regularly experiences an overwhelming desire to be an asshole, it's always good to be armed with a few more facts one can use when the urge strikes.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 24 Oct 08 - 03:49 PM

It also glows -- it all only happens in vacuum, though, no need to worry about your Christmas wrapping exercises increasing your radiation load!

piccy

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 24 Oct 08 - 05:37 PM

Thanks, Becky. That's a remarkable picture.

Dave, your comment about the hyphen is logical, but logic isn't everything. The trouble with X is that we don't have a way to pronounce it when it starts a word, so it's a troublemaker. As such, it gets a hyphen. In Becky's article, it has a hyphen every time.

I wonder if the X-rays appear with the old, clear Scotch tape or if it requires the new, frosty, Magic tape.

You know, Escobar is getting more publicity from his simple tape experiment than are others who have sweated over a hot cyclotron for months. Physicists worldwide are probably gnashing their teeth.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Gurney
Date: 24 Oct 08 - 08:26 PM

BWL, what you get from Gorilla Glue is..... dirty hands. Every time.

Good glue, though.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 24 Oct 08 - 08:44 PM

The Nature article notes, "As long ago as 1953, a team of scientists based in Russia suggested that peeling sticky tape produced X-rays." So, probably it doesn't have to be the new-fangled Magic type.

~ B in T

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 24 Oct 08 - 09:35 PM

Leeneia, we DO have a way to pronounce X at the beginning of a word, at least assuming there is a vowel sound after it. As in:

Xebec      = zeebeck
Xerxes    = Zerkzees
xylophone = Zylophone

and so on.

I grant you that xray printed without a space or hyphen would have to be treated as if it were "x ray" or "x-ray" or "eks-ray", but "xray" as such is a mistake and should never happen.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 25 Oct 08 - 11:31 AM

Now Dave, spelling a word with an x and then pronouncing it with a z is feebleness itself. Give me a word that starts with the true x sound as in 'ox.'

You're right, of course, about the hyphen that joins two adjectival forms in front of a noun, such as 'X-ray image' or 'Broken-hearted Melody'. However, we also use hyphens to stick non-words onto words, as in 'co-worker' or 'non-issue'. Or even 'non-words', which I just typed without thinkin'g about it. We seem to do this when the element being stuck on (co, non, X) 'isn't really a word.' I think the X in X-ray prompts this urge.
===========
That's a good point about the 1953 suggestion, Becky. Magic Tape is much newer than that.

It ia amazing to me that something so small can produce something as powerful as X-rays.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 25 Oct 08 - 11:38 AM

Here's a link to a beginner's page on X-rays. It says 'When something is heat to a million degrees it gives off X-rays.' That is the sort of process that I had associated with X-rays.

NASA site about X-rays

But of course, X-ray equipment on earth isn't that hot. However, I doubt that I would understand an explanation of how those machines work even if someone provided it. I never seem to get that stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 11:35 AM

In case any of you are worried about your Scotch tape useage, here you go--protect your brains.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 03:04 PM

Silly Stilly! We would need helmets of lead, not aluminum.

(Lead also protected Superman from kryptonite.)

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Gurney
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 05:25 PM

I have also conducted extensive tests on foil helmets.
With my limited equipment (a roll of kitchen foil and a crate of beer) I found that the most elegant helmet design was not the 'Centurian,' but the twin-winged 'Asterix' style.

I think that I proved that the helmet stopped intrusive radiation, and also thought, coming in from outside, or being generated within, at least when combined with the beer.

The only drawbacks noted were funny looks from passers-by, and aggressive people with Italian accents.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Mr Red
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 02:31 PM

Silly, Silly

Asterix used a sword not a foil. Asterix would not have been seen dead with a foil - or maybe he would!

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Art Thieme
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 03:05 PM

Yet another perk from Three M:

Remember to buy up all the Scotch Tape you can when it is on sale. Squeeze it in a press, and you will have the best Scotch you ever tasted.

Art

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 03:12 PM

Gorilla Glue is the worst glue for a craftsman. When it dries it sxpands and pushes the seam apart.

Its the last thing you would want for a violin.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Wolfgang
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 03:24 PM

Roentgen is the only German I can think of whose name became a verb: "roentgen" = to X ray
Of course we have also "boykottieren" and "lynchen" and "pasteurisieren" but these words come from foreign languages.

The p.p. of that verb is even for a German unpronounceable:
"Ich bin geroentgt worden"
We pronounce it as if it was spelt "geroencht".

Now what does a Dutch mean if he uses the verb "bellen"?

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Gurney
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 04:38 PM

Mr Red, Asterix had a sword like Desperate Dan had a revolver, as a fashion accessory. Neither character ever 'drew.'

A foil might have tripped him up, though.

Are you familiar with Desperate Dan?

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 11:37 PM

The New York Times coverage of the story includes these additional important details:

"All of the experiments were conducted with Scotch tape, manufactured by 3M. The details of what is occurring on the molecular scale are not known, the scientists said, in part because the Scotch adhesive remains a trade secret.

"Other brands of clear adhesive tapes also gave off X-rays, but with a different spectrum of energies. Duct tape did not produce any X-rays, Dr. Putterman said. Masking tape has not been tested."



Just thought you'd like to know.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 11:41 PM

I bet you could treat cancer or image broken limbs with the X rays that come off of the heavy duty clear package tape on the big rollers.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Paul Burke
Date: 28 Oct 08 - 04:26 AM

Xerxes    = Zerkzees?

Given that the name is a Greek mishearing of a Persian name that means "king of kings" (modern shah-an-shah), it's probably better pronounced "Kherkhes", with a short second E and using your best Yiddish (as in Khutzpah) for the kh.

Using the phenomenon described above, I've invented a raygun with a roll of tape in a container, a reflector and a collimating tube to point the rssulting stream of X rays at the victim. The whole assemblage looks rather like a St. Valentine's Day tommy gun, and can wrap your whole year's Secret Santa present hoard in less than 10 milliseconds.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 28 Oct 08 - 11:41 AM

'I bet you could treat cancer or image broken limbs with the X rays that come off of the heavy duty clear package tape on the big rollers. '

Perhaps, but the sufferer would have to survive in a vacuum. The X-rays only occur in a vacuum.

Great invention, Paul, but again it will only work in a vacuum.

Perhaps this is a good time to buy stock in vacuum cleaner manufacturers, because there will be increased demand for them. Needed to clean the vacuums necessitated by all these new devices.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Oct 08 - 11:56 AM

Duh! So get out the Hoover and hover while someone unwinds the tape roll. . .

Easy!

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: GUEST,The black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 29 Oct 08 - 09:28 AM

Just spotted this thread and by coincidence yesterday I received a letter with a leaflet promoting a play at the Mechanics Institute in Burnley (we can't go, we're at a wedding!).
It was as I was peeeling open the envelope that I spotted the adhesive used was flourescing with a violet light as the two surfaces parted. If you try resealing it and pulling it apart again it still does it but fainter.
Anyone know where they get their envelopes from?

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Oct 08 - 10:08 AM

The planet Krypton.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 29 Oct 08 - 10:44 AM

That's probably right. On the planet Krypton, velvet-black fish swim in fluorescent seas. It's a strange and beautiful place.

Blackie, do you always open your mail under ultraviolet light? Could be bad for the skin on your hands, you know.

Or do you use a violet light when sewing purple clothes?

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 30 Oct 08 - 02:03 AM

"think that I proved that the helmet stopped intrusive radiation"

From the article...

QUOTE
Conclusion
The helmets amplify frequency bands that coincide with those allocated to the US government between 1.2 Ghz and 1.4 Ghz. According to the FCC, These bands are supposedly reserved for ''radio location'' (ie, GPS), and other communications with satellites (see, for example, [3]). The 2.6 Ghz band coincides with mobile phone technology. Though not affiliated by government, these bands are at the hands of multinational corporations.

It requires no stretch of the imagination to conclude that the current helmet craze is likely to have been propagated by the Government, possibly with the involvement of the FCC. We hope this report will encourage the paranoid community to develop improved helmet designs to avoid falling prey to these shortcomings.
UNQUOTE

Now where was that thread about satellites?

Subject: RE: BS: Scotch tape produces X-rays
From: GUEST,The black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 30 Oct 08 - 08:19 AM

I've tried examining a couple more of these self adhesive envelopes now.
If you receive one go into a darkened room and try peeling the flap open holding it in such a way that you can look at the place where the stuck surfaces are coming apart.
You should see a faint purple/violet light being generated as the glue gives way.
I suppose this is technically in a partial vacuum as the air has been excluded until you peel the layers apart. I don't have a geiger counter to hand - but I know a man who may have!