Tomography

Medical CAT scanner

CAT scan image of human torso

Tomography is a method of imaging three-dimensional objects as plane sections. Three dimensional models are built up using electromagnetic or acoustic waves (such as x-rays, gamma rays, ultrasound or seismic waves) and processed in a computer to produce cross-sections in any desired orientation. The images produced by tomography are known as tomograms.

In medicine, x-rays may be used to image a human body by moving it through a rotating, high-speed, toroidal scanning unit. The thousands of slices are combined in a computer, this technique is known as computerized axial tomography and the machine is known as a C.A.T scanner and the images thus produced known as tomcatograms