This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Mountain-Magician294 on 2025-12-20 05:33:56+00:00.

Zprwj: Bob, what are you doing with that food?

Bob: I’m microwaving it.

Zprwj: What is microwaving?

Bob: Heating the food with radiation by making the water molecules move faster and raise to a much higher temperature.

Zprwj: Isn’t that dangerous?

Bob: Not in small amounts, only around 1800 watts. Still burns you if you put yourself in there.

Zprwj: And what are those things for bones and how you destroy cancer cells to cure them?

Bob: X-rays are used to see the images of our bones, while we use high energy protons on tumors, both inside and outside our bodies.

Zpwrj: Seriously?

Bob: Yes, that’s true. We can also use radiation as weapons or energy sources, like in a nuclear bomb which uses a fission-fusion reaction by using a small fission, or split, to create a much larger fusion or combination reaction for destructive potential, because of unstable atoms reacting and splitting releasing large amounts of lethal energy within 0.8-6.4 kilometers.

Zpwrj: What about your energy sources, Bob?

Bob: Radiation can be used as an energy source, yes, so we can use that remaining energy tightly contained to convert the heat energy into electrical energy.

Zpwrj: How do you know so much about radiation, Bob?

Bob: I‘m a radiologist, I study this stuff as my job. I got a nuclear physics bachelor, master’s, and PhD and have worked as one for a total of 20 years, and counting. I even wrote a thesis paper, explaining all the uses of radiation and defended it.

Zpwrj: How does this radiation work?

Bob: Radiation works by an atom by releasing excess energy-

Zpwrj: How is that excess of energy caused?

Bob: By unstable atoms-

Zpwrj: Unstable atoms?

Bob: An atom can easily break apart if the electron outer shells are not full in some cases or in other cases if protons and neutrons are not balanced against each other. When an atom is unstable, excess energy is released and us humans can use them. Though microwaves don’t use ions.

Zpwrj: Wow, that‘s incredible!

Bob: I know.

Zpwrj: What other uses can you use it for? Hm, energy, types of energy, maybe it can be changed to a different type of energy?

Bob: You are correct, we can use radiation to heat water to turn wheels, for mechanical energy, and technically Sun radiation uses light energy for solar panels which converts light into electricity.

Zpwrj: And atoms, which types of atom do you most normally use?

Bob: We mainly use the atom of Uranium, element 92 on the human periodic table, specifically the isotope U-235, which has 92 protons and 143 neutrons and 92 electrons give or take for ions, so its weight is 235 human atomic mass units (amu for short).