How is carbon 14 used to date fossils?

Question

Isaac Abel · Accepted Answer

Carbon 14 has half life of 5 700 years which is useful in dating fossils. The ratio of the carbon 14 and its stable daughter (Nitrogen 14) defines its age.

In other words, if a 100 grams of a fossil contains 50 grams of carbon 14 and 50 grams of nitrogen 14, we can say that the object is approximately 5 700 years old. 100 grams= 25 grams of carbon 14 and 75 grams of nitrogen 14, we can say that it is approximately 11 400 years. We can solve the problem using logarithms. Carbon 14 has a half life of 5 700 years, which makes it useful for dating fossils.

Isaac Abel · Answer

Carbon 14 is not used to date fossils.

Carbon 14 can only be used to date objects that are relatively recent and still contain carbon residue because of its short half-life of 5,700 years. At 57,000 years which is ten half lives the original amount of radioactive carbon 14 will be # 1/ (2xx 2 xx 2 xx 2 xx 2 xx 2 xx 2 xx2 xx2 xx2) # 1/ 1024, or roughly.0001 or.01 percent, means that there is essentially no more Carbon 14 to measure. Additionally, since all of the things that are thought of as fossils have been petrified and turned into stone, no carbon remains to be measured. Radioactive half lives are not used to date fossils, and carbon 14 is useless unless it is assumed that dinosaur bones are less than 50,000 years old.

Santiago Arce · Answer

undefined Carbon-14 dating is used to date fossils by measuring the remaining amount of radioactive carbon-14 in organic materials, as carbon-14 decays over time.