ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Backscattering cross section

Imagine you have a ball and you throw it at a wall. When the ball hits the wall, it might bounce back towards you or it might just stop and fall to the ground. Now, let’s say instead of a ball, we have light or sound waves, and instead of a wall, we have an object like a rock or a metal plate.

When the waves hit the object, they can either bounce back towards the source (like the ball bouncing off the wall towards you) or they can get absorbed by the object (like the ball stopping and falling to the ground). The backscattering cross section is like a measure of how likely it is for the waves to bounce back towards the source.

To understand cross section, let's think about donuts. Imagine you have a box full of donuts, and you want to know how likely a donut is to hit a certain target when you throw it. You can think of the cross section as how big the target is and how much space the donut can go through without hitting the target. If the target is really big, the donut is more likely to hit it. But if the target is really small, the chances of hitting it are lower.

Similarly, the backscattering cross section tells us how likely it is for the waves to bounce back towards the source when they hit the object. If the object is big, has a rough surface, or is made of a material that reflects waves well, then the backscattering cross section will be larger. This means that the waves are more likely to bounce back towards the source.

Scientists use the concept of backscattering cross section to study different objects. For example, when they want to understand how much radar signals bounce back off an airplane, they measure its backscattering cross section. This helps them know how detectable the airplane is and study its shape or material properties.

To sum it up, the backscattering cross section is like a measure of how much waves bounce back towards the source when they hit an object. It depends on the size, shape, and properties of the object, and helps scientists understand and study different things in their research.
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