Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf-D1Upn-KU

I was inspired by the video above to possibly try to do a science fair project on frugal science because of its life-saving potential. I saw a "make your own x-ray" project on science buddies and read the project. I thought of doing a frugal science project on constructing an inexpensive x-ray imaging machine. The most expensive part, however, is the x-ray tube, which is the radioactive source. the cheapest one i could find was around $50, which isn't too bad, except that, with all the other materials, it can hardly be considered "frugal". At least not as inexpensive as the developed equipment in the video. Is there a safe way to construct one of these x-ray tubes, considering there is a radioactive source? Where can I get better information on the manufacturing of x-ray tubes?

P.S. I haven't settled on this as my project yet, so if this idea wouldn't work for any reason, let me know.

catethegreat

Hi catethegreat,

A quick online search on “x ray machine science project” turned up a few designs in addition to the one described in the Science Buddies project. You might want to check out the parts lists for these to see if any can be made at a lower cost. X-ray sources are vacuum tubes and I think it would be very difficult to make one without access to specialized equipment, so you'll probably need to buy one.

If you decide not to work on the x-ray project, there are other Science Buddies projects that might fit with the frugal science concept. Two examples are described at the following links:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... microscope

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... photometer

I hope this helps. Please ask again if you have more questions.

A. Norman