Radiation is energy that comes from a source and travels through space at the speed of light.
- Radiant energy has an electric field, and a magnetic field and may be described in terms of electromagnetic waves or in terms of bundles of photons travelling in a wave-like pattern.
- Visible light is a form of radiation often described in terms of either electromagnetic waves or photons.
- Types of radiation with the highest energy include ultraviolet radiation, x-rays, and gamma rays.
- When x-rays or gamma-rays interact with atoms, they can remove electrons which destabilises them and make them radioactive.
- Radioactivity is the spontaneous release of energy from an unstable atom as it returns to a stable state.
- Ionizing Radiation is the energy that comes out of a radioactive atom.