WHY X-RAYS ARE CALLED "X"-RAYS?

                               An X-Ray is a type of photograph usually taken by the doctor during a health check. This X-ray was discovered by WILLIAM C.ROENTGEN (1845-1923), born in Prussian Lennep. He accidentally discovered the strange beam of light while experimenting with electricity. He soon discovered that this beam of light has the properties to pierce through any object and named it "X-radiation". 

                                So why did he name them X-rays?... "X" implies the unknown. In other words, X-radiation is "an unknown beam of light". Though he discovered it, Roentgen felt that there were still many characteristics he had not yet found out about this beam. And hence named them "X-Rays".He took the world's first X-ray using his wife's hand.

      

                              Roentgen while researching with electrical currents within a vacuum, noticed a paper screen nearby glowing- "invisible rays were making it glow". He knew without a doubt that it was an invisible beam of light, emitted from the cathode ray tubes, that had shone through the paper. And so, he began his research. The research of electrical phenomena was popular in Europe back then. Others had also found that cathode ray tubes emitted light, but they did not study any further.
                               
                               Sometimes X-rays are also called as Roentgen rays in honor of the man who discovered them.He received the first Nobel prize for physics in 1901.He also found that X-rays had four main characteristics.

• The heavier the wave is, the harder it is for it to pass through.
• Like photograph, X-rays can be exposed on a dry, black photographic plate.
• X-rays can make things glow.
• When X-rays run into something, they scatter light.

                                 Apart medical field, X-rays are also used in many other fields like to scan our baggage in airport, to study about the minerals found deep within Earth's core, e.t.c. As Roentgen never took out a copyright for his findings, people all over the world have been able to use X-rays for various purposes.