system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What is the difference between radiation that transfers heat and the radiation that we associate with radioactive substances?

So I learned in class that radiation is a form of heat transfer. Is this difference than say, the radiation from nuclear explosions?
gpt
Radiation from nuclear explosions consists of various high-energy particles. The lightest and smallest of those, gamma rays, are nothing else than very energetic photons (light particles).

When heat is radiated, this is also done in the form of photons (mostly infrared photons for something at room temperature), although those photons have far lower energies (to be precise, about 100 million times lower).

So is there a difference between these forms of radiation? Obviously the energy levels are different, but other than that there isn't really a difference between a gamma ray photon and an infrared photon.

Do, however, note that nuclear radiation can take other forms than gamma rays.