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Carbon-14 is in all living things and decays after it dies. It has a long half life (the time it takes for half a sample to decay into another element) and gives a good estimate as to how old something is.

Carbon dating is only effective up to an approximate age of 70,000 years, and is only useful in dating organic matter. Since the vast majority of fossils are much older than this, carbon dating is not particularly useful in dating fossils, but is of great use in Archaeology.

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13y ago
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11y ago

The C-14 is carbon 14 it is a certain type carbon. Carbon 14 has a half life of 5,730 years and by checking the amount of the carbon 14 is in a fossil the can see how old it is. After 11,460 years c-14 dating is useless.

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7y ago

The half life of C 14 is 5730 years. After a few half lives its useless.

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Q: How do scientists use Carbon-14 to date fossils?
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