What Do Your Insides Look Like?

Another use of strong magnets is in MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machines that can take pictures of the inside of your body. Remember when we talked about how atoms can behave like tiny magnets? When you get an MRI scan done, you're placed inside a gigantic magnet, which lines up many of the atoms in your body. The ones we're most interested in are the hydrogens, which are found in the water inside of you, and in the soft tissue, like muscles and organs (there's very little water in your bones). Radio waves (much like the ones that carry your favorite station) excite these atomic magnets, and powerful computers sort all the information out, and create a very detailed picture of your insides. Here's a game that gives you more information about MRI's.