FOFC Malarky: Question #1

[Poli]

FOFC Malarky rules (http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~fof/forums/showthread.php?t=24629)

How did the X-Ray get it's name?

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[SirFozzie]

That's simple.

Professor Xavier Smith was the person who discovered the properties of radiation, and the images it left on film. He wanted to call the device that generated these rays a Smith Ray Cathode, but there was already a Smith Cathode patented, so he called it a X-Ray.

[Coffee Warlord]

Bzzzzzzt. Wrong.

First, it was a German doctor by the name of Mikel-Hans Eckert, whose family had moved to the US before the first world war. As the story goes, the American scientists who were working with him dubbed it "Eckert's Ray Cathode", which was later shortened to "Eckert's Ray", which finally became the familiar term we all know, the X-Ray.

[The Afoci]

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered X-Rays well experimenting with his Cathode Ray Generator. After perfecting the technique with many different tests on his wife's hand, he decided on naming the new radiation after her. She wasn't so fond of that, so a compromise was in order and called it X-Ray with Ray short for radiation and 'X' for how his wife signed her name. Embarrassed about her inability to read or write, she had him claim that he named it "X-ray" because its ability to expose the insides of people. The truth was only revealed after his untimely death, most likely from radiation, as he had wrote it in his personal journal.

[John Galt]

In the immortal words of Pete in O Brother Where Art Thou: "That don't make no sense!"

The correct answer is:

In math and science, "X" represents the unknown. The inventor of the X-Ray, in 1895, did not know why his machine worked so he called it an "X" ray.

[stkelly52]

On 8 November 1895, German physics professor Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen (1845-1923) worked in his darkened Wurzburg laboratory. His experiments focused on light phenomena and other emissions generated by discharging electrical current in xenon filled glass tubes.
To Roentgen's surprise, he noted that when his tube was charged, an object across the room began to glow. This proved to be a barium platinocyanide-coated screen too far away to be reacting to the cathode rays as he understood them. We know little about the sequence of his work over the next few days, except that while holding materials between the tube and screen to test the new rays, he saw the bones of his hand clearly displayed in an outline of flesh.

It is from the xenon inside of the original tube that we get the name xray

[Poli]

Everyone has answered. So, who has the right answer? Players, PM me with your answer. As soon as they are all in, I'll reveal the right answer, the score, and the next question.

[fantastic flying froggies]

I knew the answer that one, but I must say the other 4 were mostly 'trustable'...