Never let it connect, btw... no matter how nicely it asks.

16 days ago by The Picard Maneuver to c/memes

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merc 48 points 16 days ago

Just in case anybody is stupid enough to believe this, there was nothing radioactive in old CRT-based TVs. And they sometimes had black cases but weren't a "black box".

They worked by bending a beam of electrons that hit phosphors in the screen, which is cool enough that saying stupid BS about "radioactive" is unnecessary.

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lichtmetzger 28 points 16 days ago

CRTs can emit X-Rays, but they are properly shielded so they never leave the tube.

The X-Ray scare mostly came from a line of GE TV's in 1968 that had improper shielding and had to be recalled.

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merc 7 points 16 days ago

Radioactivity and X-Rays are tangentially related, but they're not at all the same thing.

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Equinox1289 10 points 16 days ago

One is from a decaying material and the other is from controlled electron beam, but they are both radiation emitters. People are just more familiar with the term radioactive and think it is the catch-all term for a source of radiation.

The electron gun in a tv and in an xray machine are pretty similar and without shielding, you will still get hit with radiation even if it isn't strictly radioactive, but rather another type of radiation emitter.

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merc 2 points 16 days ago

One is from a decaying material

Specifically radioactive decay.

the other is from controlled electron beam

So, not radioactivity.

Radiation is a really vague term. It's just energy moving in the form of waves or particles. Sunlight is radiation. Radio waves are radiation. Microwaves are radiation. Wifi is radiation.

Radiation can be dangerous in a few ways. Something can be very bright and blind you, or it can cause you to heat up too much. X-rays are an example of ionizing radiation, that's dangerous because it can break apart molecular bonds, causing damage to cells. That's why you can get skin cancer from ultraviolet radiation. X-rays are a shorter wavelength than ultraviolet light, so there's more potential cellular damage per photon.

But, radioactivity is dangerous not just because of X-rays, but primarily because of alpha and beta particles, and because of even higher energy particles like gamma particles / rays.

So, just because there's one type of ionizing radiation that can come from a CRT-TV that is also peripherally associated with radioactive decay doesn't mean that there's any connection between a TV and radioactivity.

That would be like saying that an atomic bomb causes a huge explosion, and a fertilizer bomb also causes a huge explosion, so a fertilizer bomb is a nuke.

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zekas 1 point 12 days ago

Yes the humor was in the vagueness

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