WHAT I LEARNED FROM MY FIELD TRIP TO THE MRI

I was hatin' today, no lie. Crappy differential equations test with crappy transformations, crappy 5 page political science paper, just crappy crap.

Oh, and I was going to have to sit it a frickin' tube for a solid 45 minutes without wiggling.  Just swell.


But oh, how my attitude changed when I saw that sexy machine.
"Whoooaaaaa. Tell me how this WORKS!"

I said to the MRI technician.


I was very pleased with his answer--usually techs don't really know what is happening. They just 'press the buttons'.

He proceeded to explain the mechanisms of the giant current-carrying coil that produced a whopping 2.0 tesla magnet. (That is HUGE, by the way.)  Then he explained that tissue, bone, and fat all have different natural frequencies, and by getting them to emit energy, the computer can use a Fourier transform to turn the readings into 2-D, and even 3-D images.


I suddenly had a new motivation to study for my differential equations test--I could potentially save lives with those blasted transformations that I have cursed to the high heavens over the past semester.


Huh, this day was turning out to be pretty cool.



I contently sat in the tube 
and listened to the various calming frequencies and blissful clankings of the current through the coil,
pondering the sheer genius of the invention,
and hoping that someday,
I could come up with something like this, too.