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<p>[QUOTE="Oldhoopster, post: 4689694, member: 84179"]At various times during my career, I've used XRF data (checking the glass compositions in Corelle dinnerware for example), so I know enough about the science of analytical equipment to make myself dangerous.</p><p><br /></p><p>Basically, the XRF unit generates an xray beam. As that beam hits an atom, it knocks off an electron close to the nucleus. The atom isn't happy losing this electron, so an electron in a higher energy orbit will drop into the lower energy orbit to stabilize things. When it does, a small amount of energy is released as an xray</p><p><br /></p><p>Each element has very specific energy levels where the electrons orbit around the nucleus and it's different for each one (there are multiple orbits or shells for each element). So, if you can measure the amount of energy released by the electrons and match it with known values for a specific element, you can figure out what you have.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sounds simple, but it still blows me away that we can do this. </p><p><br /></p><p>This also explains why XRF can only detect elements near the surface. As the X-Ray beam starts penetrating the surface it loses energy. At some point below the surface, it doesn't have enough energy left to knock off electrons. Plus, if it does knock off any election below the surface, the resulting X-Ray energy may not make it back to the surface to be detected.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1153223[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1153228[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>This is what the data usually looks like. You need to take this data and convert it to the percentages that are displayed on the XRF screen. That requires a lot more math which is beyond my pay grade. But I'll just say that because of the complexity, handheld units may not have as detailed algorithm as you would find in a laboratory machine, so measuring of trace elements (less than a percent) or values reported to 0.01% may not be the most accurate[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Oldhoopster, post: 4689694, member: 84179"]At various times during my career, I've used XRF data (checking the glass compositions in Corelle dinnerware for example), so I know enough about the science of analytical equipment to make myself dangerous. Basically, the XRF unit generates an xray beam. As that beam hits an atom, it knocks off an electron close to the nucleus. The atom isn't happy losing this electron, so an electron in a higher energy orbit will drop into the lower energy orbit to stabilize things. When it does, a small amount of energy is released as an xray Each element has very specific energy levels where the electrons orbit around the nucleus and it's different for each one (there are multiple orbits or shells for each element). So, if you can measure the amount of energy released by the electrons and match it with known values for a specific element, you can figure out what you have. Sounds simple, but it still blows me away that we can do this. This also explains why XRF can only detect elements near the surface. As the X-Ray beam starts penetrating the surface it loses energy. At some point below the surface, it doesn't have enough energy left to knock off electrons. Plus, if it does knock off any election below the surface, the resulting X-Ray energy may not make it back to the surface to be detected. [ATTACH=full]1153223[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1153228[/ATTACH] This is what the data usually looks like. You need to take this data and convert it to the percentages that are displayed on the XRF screen. That requires a lot more math which is beyond my pay grade. But I'll just say that because of the complexity, handheld units may not have as detailed algorithm as you would find in a laboratory machine, so measuring of trace elements (less than a percent) or values reported to 0.01% may not be the most accurate[/QUOTE]
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1 ounce silver buffalo rounds....
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