2 answers
Rosaria
Student
Poughkeepsie, New York
1
Question
Updated
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After you graduate to be a Radiologic Technician, do you use math on a daily basis on the job?
I am looking to go into being a Radiologic Technician but I'm not so great at math.
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2 answers
Joseph Neilson
Radiation Detection Physicist
217
Answers
Oxford, England, United Kingdom
Updated
Joseph’s Answer
It depends on the kind of radiological technician role; some use more mathematics than others, especially so in fields outside of medicine like industrial radiography or even my field where I work with radiation and radiological technicians in nuclear research. Certainly in my role we do use a fair bit of advanced mathematics quite regularly; but I'm a bit of a unusual case and also much more of a scientist than a technician.
I imagine you're instead thinking of a standard hosptial x-ray radiology medical imaging role, and these roles will generally need much less mathematics. As I'm in a slightly different field myself, I'm not too familiar with exactly what a hospital rad tech will be using, but I have a rough idea - a lot of the role will be more about understanding the medical nature of the images you're looking at and knowing whether you're getting enough information to inform diagnoses etc, so a lot is more about pictures and less about mathematics. However, I think all rad techs will still use some maths.
There's a couple of particular maths concepts that really stand out to me as very relevant even to a basic medical rad tech and you'll need to become very comfortable with - the first is dealing with different units and conversions. Radiation is not always a simple thing to measure, and there's lots of different quantities and different units involved that you'll need to be able to work with. There's quantities like exposure that measure how much radiation passes through an area, but what you generally want to know is what (little) damage it might be doing, and there's different dose quantities to measure that. The damage depends on the radiation and the part of the body, so there's weighing factors that need to be considered when converting between different quantities and units. The maths itself is generally just simple multiplications and divisions, but you'll need to be comfortable understanding the units you've got, what they mean, and how you can apply factors to get the quantities you want.
Another key concept is understanding dose rates vs total doses. Medical exposures can involve quite high instantaneous dose rates, but as the exposure is only a short time, the total dose might be relatively small. Of course, the idea of rates of change commonly appears in mathematics as differential calculus, and you might even occasionally see a rate written with a calculus-style dx/dt notation - but don't get scared, in day-to-day work, I don't think people are doing the maths of solving differentials like in class, it's just a way of writing, and most of the time dose rates can be assumed to be constant so the actual maths is just dealing with multiplications and divisions - calculations like a dose rate of X mSv/hr over Y fractions of a second is what total dose in uSv.
That's only to think about basic medical x-ray imaging, though. Other rad tech roles could involve much more mathematics; even in a hospital setting, the people that do more advanced radiological techniques like nuclear medicine procedures or planning radiotherapy doses will tend to need more mathematics background.
I imagine you're instead thinking of a standard hosptial x-ray radiology medical imaging role, and these roles will generally need much less mathematics. As I'm in a slightly different field myself, I'm not too familiar with exactly what a hospital rad tech will be using, but I have a rough idea - a lot of the role will be more about understanding the medical nature of the images you're looking at and knowing whether you're getting enough information to inform diagnoses etc, so a lot is more about pictures and less about mathematics. However, I think all rad techs will still use some maths.
There's a couple of particular maths concepts that really stand out to me as very relevant even to a basic medical rad tech and you'll need to become very comfortable with - the first is dealing with different units and conversions. Radiation is not always a simple thing to measure, and there's lots of different quantities and different units involved that you'll need to be able to work with. There's quantities like exposure that measure how much radiation passes through an area, but what you generally want to know is what (little) damage it might be doing, and there's different dose quantities to measure that. The damage depends on the radiation and the part of the body, so there's weighing factors that need to be considered when converting between different quantities and units. The maths itself is generally just simple multiplications and divisions, but you'll need to be comfortable understanding the units you've got, what they mean, and how you can apply factors to get the quantities you want.
Another key concept is understanding dose rates vs total doses. Medical exposures can involve quite high instantaneous dose rates, but as the exposure is only a short time, the total dose might be relatively small. Of course, the idea of rates of change commonly appears in mathematics as differential calculus, and you might even occasionally see a rate written with a calculus-style dx/dt notation - but don't get scared, in day-to-day work, I don't think people are doing the maths of solving differentials like in class, it's just a way of writing, and most of the time dose rates can be assumed to be constant so the actual maths is just dealing with multiplications and divisions - calculations like a dose rate of X mSv/hr over Y fractions of a second is what total dose in uSv.
That's only to think about basic medical x-ray imaging, though. Other rad tech roles could involve much more mathematics; even in a hospital setting, the people that do more advanced radiological techniques like nuclear medicine procedures or planning radiotherapy doses will tend to need more mathematics background.
Chinyere Okafor
Educationist and Counseling Psychologist
401
Answers
Port Harcourt, Rivers, Nigeria
Updated
Chinyere’s Answer
Hello
Fantastic question!
Yes, radiologic technicians do use math on a daily basis. While it's not complex, having a solid foundation in basic math is essential for tasks like:
1. Calculating radiation dosages: Ensuring patients receive the correct amount of radiation for accurate images while minimizing exposure.
2. Determining exposure times: Adjusting settings on X-ray machines to produce clear images.
3. Measuring patient dimensions: Ensuring proper positioning and image quality.
4. Understanding ratios and proportions: For tasks like calculating contrast ratios or measuring distances.
Don't worry if you're not a math whiz. The math involved in radiology is typically basic arithmetic and doesn't require advanced calculus or algebra. Many radiology programs offer math support or remedial courses to help students build the necessary skills.
If you're passionate about helping others and interested in a healthcare career, becoming a radiologic technician can be a rewarding choice.
Best wishes!
Fantastic question!
Yes, radiologic technicians do use math on a daily basis. While it's not complex, having a solid foundation in basic math is essential for tasks like:
1. Calculating radiation dosages: Ensuring patients receive the correct amount of radiation for accurate images while minimizing exposure.
2. Determining exposure times: Adjusting settings on X-ray machines to produce clear images.
3. Measuring patient dimensions: Ensuring proper positioning and image quality.
4. Understanding ratios and proportions: For tasks like calculating contrast ratios or measuring distances.
Don't worry if you're not a math whiz. The math involved in radiology is typically basic arithmetic and doesn't require advanced calculus or algebra. Many radiology programs offer math support or remedial courses to help students build the necessary skills.
If you're passionate about helping others and interested in a healthcare career, becoming a radiologic technician can be a rewarding choice.
Best wishes!