A5_2 Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Radioactive Ark

Abstract

How much radiation does it take to melt a face? This paper looks at the infamous face-melting scene from ‘Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark’. We explore the idea that if the Ark was in fact a lead-lined box with a gamma-ray radioactive source inside, how much radiation would be needed to ‘melt’ a human. We find that the required dose of radiation required to ‘melt’ a human in 10 seconds is H_T =3.83×107Sv, which gives the absorbed dose rate value of 2.29×108Gy/min.