Introduction to Health Physics: Fourth Edition 4th Edition by Thomas E. Johnson (PDF)

Description

A dynamic, all-inclusive overview of the field of health physicsIf it’s an important topic in the field of health physics, you’ll find it in this trusted text . . . in sections on physical principles, atomic and nuclear structure, radioactivity, biological effects of radiation, and instrumentation. This one-of-a-kind guide spans the entire scope of the field and offers a problem-solving approach that will serve you throughout your career.Features: A thorough overview of need-to-know topics, from a review of physical principles to a useful look at the interaction of radiation with matter Chapter-ending practice problems to solidify your grasp of health physics topics and their real-world application Essential background material on quantitative risk assessment for health-threatening radiation dangers Authoritative radiation safety and environmental health coverage that supports the International Commission on Radiological Protection’s standards for specific populations High-yield appendices to expand your comprehension of chapter material: Values of Some Useful Constants, Table of the Elements, The Reference Person, Specific Absorbed Fraction of Photon Energy, and Total Mass Attenuation Coefficients NEW! Essential coverage of non-ionizing radiation-laser and microwaves, computer use in dose calculation, and dose limit recommendations

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐The fourth edition of Introduction to Health Physics by Herman Cember and Thomas Johnson is a 21st century update to the classic Health Physics text. The new edition expands on the third edition with a content update, more problems, plus modern tables and graphics for better readability.Chapter 4 On Radiation Sources has been expanded to include an extensive discussion on Machine Sources of Radiation. This new section covers X-Ray Tubes, Linear Accelerators, and Cyclotrons. Chapter 14 on Nonionizing Radiation Safety has been revamped. The chapter is a great help to health physicists needing to expand their skills in dealing with laser and ultraviolet radiation safety issues.One of the text’s strong points is the extensive problem set at the end of each chapter. Diligently working through all of the problems in this text is a prerequisite to passing both Parts I and II of the Comprehensive Certification in Health Physics Exam. The fourth edition of Introduction to Health Physics is a good addition to the libraries of both practicing Health Physicists and students.

⭐Edit: It had come to my attention that this review is appearing for the 4th edition. Please note that my review pertains to the 3rd edition!Original review: I purchased this book as a required text when I was still an undergrad, for a class in Radiation Protection. It’s peppered with initial equations that are thumb-rules, and I’m not just talking about the well known empirical thumb rules like ZE/800 = (dE/dx) rad/ (dE/dx) colHere’s an example:If you want to find the specific activity of a nuclide, Cember uses the definition of the Curie to cancel a couple constants (ln(2) and Na) and instead include a second GAW and half-life to look-up or memorize. (GAW of Radium * Half-life of Radium) / (GAW of the nuclide * Half-life of the nuclide) = Activity (in Ci/g)Other authors of health physics texts, like Schultis & Faw or Martin, define the activity as decay constant * Avagadro’s number / gram atomic weight = Activity (in disintegrations per unit time per gram, where the time is in whatever unit you used for the decay constant. Use seconds to get activity in Bq).Cember’s formula is useful for back-of-the-envelope problems as it’s easier to do without a calculator (e.g. if you haven’t memorized ln(2) to a few sig figs). However, the other formula is the actual definition of specific activity. If you know what specific activity means, you can probably come up with that formula by simply writing out the mathematical equivalent of the definition.If you’re a student, and this is the text book for your class, grab it for sure. Many of the formulae you’ll see in lecture (assuming your lectures are derived from this text) won’t look the same in an alternate text that starts with proper physical laws. For instance: wavelength” = 12400/eV in Cember is really wavelength = hc/E, but with the constants substituted in already (and no way from looking at the formula to tell what the units are for Cember’s answer — in this case, it’s Angstroms).If you’re the instructor or a board advisee selecting the textbook for your class? I’d recommend considering the alternatives. The only real advantage to Cember’s approach is it saves your students from doing unit conversion and some algebra, and in exchange they just have to annotate all the thumb-rules on their equation sheets with the resulting units, since you can’t decide the system just by looking at the formula. But honestly, you can save your students the same amount of time by listing some common modern physics constants with the unit conversion in place. For the wavelength example, that’d be that hc = 1240 MeV fm.(Oh, and ignore the Reference Woman data…Cember claims she is ridiculously short)

⭐I begin by admitting my bias: Professor Cember was my master’s thesis advisor at Northwestern University from 1972 to 1974. He was the most precise person I ever met. He was distressed at typographical errors in the first edition, published about 1972. He would be proud to know that his text has endured for 40 years. This book has stood the test of time. It is recommended reading at the Dade Moeller Training Academy where I now teach. I think it makes an excellent textbook as well as an outstanding reference book. It joins a small group of physics and medical physics textbooks that have become classics over the years.

⭐I actually teach a college course from this book

⭐This is a decent reference textbook, but doesn’t contain as much technical information as “Physics for Radiation Protection” by Dr. James Martin

⭐Purchased for graduate course in radiation transportation. Book is well laid out and written at a level easier to understand than other books I’ve seen.

⭐Good reference but the equations are in a typeset that doesn’t scale up from tiny. With 7 inch tablet some are hard to read.

⭐Second time I bought this. First book was munched in an accident, but I couldn’t do without it. This is the definitive text on Health Physics.

⭐Doing RPE course and this book has it all plus a lot more.

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