You have three cookies. One emits alpha radiation, one emits beta radiation and one emits gamma radiation. You have to eat one, put another in your pocket and put a third into a lead box. What do you do with each cookie?
- Put the beta emitting cookie in the lead box. That will protect you from that cookie.
- Put the alpha emitting cookie in your pocket. Alpha radiation is easily stopped by a piece of paper (or your pants).
- Eat the gamma cookie. Gamma radiation is the least ionizing of the three, so it is the least likely to do damage once inside your body. In addition, it is energetic enough that much of it is likely to escape your body without interacting with it.