How is the half-life of carbon-14 used for dating archaeological samples?

Answer 1

By knowing half life we can estimate the age of the sample.

Radiocarbon dating.is a technique for determining the age of organic materials, such as wood, based on their content of the radioisotope 14C acquired from the atmosphere when they formed part of a living plant. The 14C decays to the nitrogen isotope 14N with a half-life of 5730 years.

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Answer 2

Benjamin Awad

The half-life of carbon-14 (C-14) is approximately 5730 years. This property is utilized in radiocarbon dating, a method used to determine the age of organic materials, such as archaeological samples. By measuring the remaining amount of C-14 in a sample and comparing it to the initial amount, scientists can calculate how many half-lives have passed and thus estimate the sample's age. This technique is effective for dating samples up to about 50,000 years old.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.