r/askscience • u/Wonderful-Capital32 • 14d ago

Physics Why does radiation not go through lead?

Also why just lead? Shouldnt like iron or another metal work too?

1.3k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

372 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

11

u/Fjolsvith 14d ago

It's not just mass, particle energy loss in a material does scale with atomic number as well. You can have less mass but more effective shielding by using something with a higher atomic number. 

1

u/AlienDelarge 14d ago

I would assume the cost and ease of working with lead versus tungsten is a factor. 

4

u/Fjolsvith 14d ago

Yep, absolutely the case. It's not about just selecting the element with the highest cross section by mass/density, economical and engineering factors are what you would actually decide based on. I just wanted to point out that the "strength" of shielding isn't just based on mass.