Medical Device Simulators
X-ray
Explore how material attenuation and thickness form a detector signal in an ideal planar X-ray model.
Synthetic phantom
Material controls
Noise is a synthetic teaching control. It does not represent patient dose, tube current, kVp, or a clinical exposure setting.
Why these controls?
These sliders set the synthetic phantom: the selected material's attenuation coefficient μ and thickness x, plus detector noise. Change them to see how thicker or denser material lowers the transmitted intensity I = I₀·exp(−μx) and brightens the attenuation image.
Ideal detector
Planar signal map
Ray-by-ray inspection
Selected detector row
Minimum transmission
0.192
Mean transmission
0.519
Maximum log attenuation
1.650
Model equations
I = I₀ exp(−Σ μᵢxᵢ)
A = −ln(I/I₀)
I₀ = 1 normalized unit · μ in cm⁻¹ · x in cm
Student checks
- Set x = 0 or μ = 0 and confirm I = I₀.
- Double thickness and observe exponential—not linear—signal loss.
- Compare single- and two-layer modes; layer order does not change total attenuation.
- Set all materials equally and inspect uniformity; add noise and compare the mean.
- Discuss why an energy spectrum and scatter make this model incomplete.