Ripped Scotch Tape Emits X-Rays

discovery.com ^ | Oct. 22, 2008 | Malcolm Ritter

[neverdem]

Associated Press

Just two weeks after a Nobel Prize highlighted theoretical work on subatomic particles, physicists are announcing a startling discovery about a much more familiar form of matter: Scotch tape.

It turns out that if you peel the popular adhesive tape off its roll in a vacuum chamber, it emits X-rays. The researchers even made an X-ray image of one of their fingers.

Who knew? Actually, more than 50 years ago, some Russian scientists reported evidence of X-rays from peeling sticky tape off glass. But the new work demonstrates that you can get a lot of X-rays, a study co-author said.

"We were very surprised," said Juan Escobar. "The power you could get from just peeling tape was enormous."

Escobar, a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, reports the work with UCLA colleagues in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature...

[television is just wrong]

we’re all gonna die from xray exposure!

[farlander]

How the hell does that work ?

[Not now, Not ever!]

Apparently, very well.

[MarineBrat]

Scotch works but what about bourbon?

[I_like_good_things_too]

Global warming.

[max americana]

So does this mean if I use scotch tape and watch Obama’s head, I’ll see nothing?

[justlurking]

only if you unroll the tape in a vacuum. The presence of air inhibits the effect.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Dang.

[CanaGuy]

I think some people plug this site with useless stuff to make the important articles scroll off the bottom quicker. How many of you actually go beyond the first page?

[ConservativeMan55]

bttt

[txhurl]

What about popping bubble wrap? What does that emit? Besides pleasure :)

[Slump Tester]

Not that it has anything to do with xrays, but when I was younger and working in the darkroom loading my bulk film loader, I remember the tape would make a flat, dim spark as it was peeled. But that was from static electricity.

[justlurking]

electrons jump across the gap from the tape on the roll to the the strip as it pulls away. When electrons complete the jump, they suddenly slow down, which causes the xray emission.

[eyedigress]

Motorola used to show the pulling of scotch tape and a static 50,000 volts generated. Don’t bring tape around sensitve devices.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Watch out Varian (or whoever makes those gigantic xray machines)!

[rdl6989]

Good question. I’d love to know how this is happening.