Someone once told me they built a hospital with lead only in the x ray room walls due to the rays inability to travel vertically and therefore not needed in ceings or floors. Is this crap? or true? I have recounted the tale and was called a donkey. Do I get to redeem myself??
they're not light as light is the visible part of the spectrum. They are electromagnetic radiation with a smaller frequency than visible light. However as they are both e.m. radiation they both move in all directions from a source.
Remember that light will bounce off of a surface so when you switch on a light bulb you see the room because the light hits obects and is reflected to your eye.
X rays will not do this of course they will either go though or be absorbed but they will not bounce off of the object.
X-rays are perfectly capable of travelling vertically, but, if a patient is being X-rayed, a horizontal beam will be fired at them.
If you shine a torch at a wall, you don't illuminate the ceiling or floor, if it's reasonably sharply focused - and I think we can assume that X-ray machines are similarly designed.
That probably depends on the individual set up but it's a pretty fair guess they don't point them upwards so I can't see the need for shielding in the ceiling