Kerma (physics)
Kinetic energy released by ionizing radiation from uncharged particles per unit mass / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about a quantity in radiation physics. For other uses, see Kerma (disambiguation).
In radiation physics, kerma is an acronym for "kinetic energy released per unit mass" (alternately, "kinetic energy released in matter",[1] "kinetic energy released in material",[2] or "kinetic energy released in materials"[3]), defined as the sum of the initial kinetic energies of all the charged particles liberated by uncharged ionizing radiation (i.e., indirectly ionizing radiation such as photons and neutrons) in a sample of matter, divided by the mass of the sample. It is defined by the quotient
.[4]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg/40px-Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg.png)
Look up kerma in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.