From here.
So the mesh enclosing a microwave prevents the radiation inside from getting out. Couldn’t this be applied to other forms of radiation as well? Could ladies in fishnet stockings and cockroaches be the only animals to survive nuclear fallout?
Wavelength is important. From the column you linked:
[QUOTE}The shorter the wavelength of the RF, the smaller the holes need be to block the radiation. Microwave ovens operating at 2450 MHz emit radiation with a wavelength of about 12 centimeters, and the holes in the mesh of the door are typically on the order of 1-2 millimeters in diameter. Since the holes are small compared to the wavelength of the microwaves, little radiation can leak out. [/QUOTE]
Since the wavelength of damaging radiation from something like Chernobyl is very much smaller, the shielding material would effectively have to be solid (and because of the energy, thick as well).
That’s my question. If a sufficiently small mesh existed, could that be enough protection?
At the point of explosion, I can see that the energy would vapourize stuff. But outside the blast zone dealing with radiation, energy isn’t the issue. People have fallout shelters deep in the earth to avoid radiation but if all it takes is some fine mosquito netting, no worries. I’ll go fish for some three-eyed bass.
The principle only applies to electromagnetic radiation, and only up to a point. It works well for radio waves. It also works for visible light, UV and soft X-rays, but you need such a fine “mesh” that you might as well use a solid metal foil. Higher energy electromagnetic radiation, i.e. hard X-rays and gamma rays, act more like solid particles and punch through solid metal plates. Same with some other types of radiation (e.g. neutrons). So no, a metal mesh or foil won’t proect you from the radiation from a nuclear reaction.
As for “fallout”, that’s not radiation, but radioactive material. If you breathe it in or ingest it, it’ll stay in your body for a long time, shooting radiation at you from the inside. Even if you don’t ingest it, if there’s a large quantity of fallout nearby, it may emit enough radiation to kill you. Again, a metal mesh won’t protect you in any way.
Think about x-rays for a second. When you get an x-ray, do you take off your clothes? No, because x-rays will go right through your clothes without noticing. Just like they’ll go through your flesh, and only be stopped by your bones.
You can have x-ray resistant clothing. When you get a dental x-ray they put a lead apron over the rest of your body. So you could build yourself an x-ray proof lead suit. Except it would be damn heavy, not mosquito netting.
So microwaves can be stopped by a thin metal mesh. Visible light is more energetic than microwaves, and will mostly pass through the mesh, that’s why you can see through the mesh. So pretty much anything you can see through will allow more energetic particles to travel through also. And visible light will travel through your body to some extent, shine a strong flashlight through your fingers. Light travels through your body! Same as x-rays, only less so.
Now, the big problem with radiation isn’t microwaves, or visible light, or ultraviolet, or even x-rays, but gamma rays. Which are even more powerful than x-rays, and would need even thicker and heavier shielding. So, yes, you could build yourself a gamma-ray proof suit, but it would probably be so thick and heavy that you couldn’t walk under your own power. That’s why you have to stay in the shelter. A few meters of concrete or dirt will protect you from pretty much all radiation.
Thanks for saving me from cross dressing.
Although I do think that I’d look good in a short skirt and heels.
It may indeed be the mesh size that explains it, but my own research indicates a preliminary conclusion that fishnet stockings on women increase the transfer of some kinds of energy to men and a few women. I have applied for grants to allow further research on a larger scale. Some congresspeople have not only promised to support my grant, but volunteered to participate in the research. Such personal support of science is truly unusual in these times.
In principle, a sufficiently small mesh could even protect against gamma rays. However, such a mesh would have to be so small that it could not be made out of atoms. Don’t ask me what to make it out of instead. I suppose it’s conceivable that you could weave a gamma-proof mesh out of cosmic strings, but I suspect it’s more likely that such a weave would just explode, and even if it were stable, it’d be astronomically heavy.
I wasn’t aware that cockroaches wore fishnet stockings. Or are you referring to women who wear roaches on their stockings?
Did Kafka discuss this, in Metamorphosis?
Sounds more like something William S. Burroughs would think up.