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As far back as there were organisms who were able to consume food containing both ordinary carbon and an isotope of carbon; the comparison of the ratios - which pinpoints the time when an organism stopped eating - gives rise to carbon dating.

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What is the accuracy of dating a 500 year old seed and a 1000000 year old bone with carbon 14 dating?

Only the seed could be effectively dated using C14. The bone, at one million years old, is far outside the range for which carbon dating is effective. Once the Carbon 14 within a sample has decayed significantly it becomes impossible to measure the remaining amount and establish an age. Currently, using modern methods we can date items using carbon dating up to around 60,000 years before present. The seed, superficially would be a good candidate for carbon dating, however because of it's age and the process of calibrating radiocarbon dates into calender years there would be quite a large range of dates. If you were to test the seed (assuming is was 500years old) a calibrated age would likely be something like 590-400 years before present with a 95% chance of the age falling within that range, or 430-550 years before present with a 68% chance of the age falling within that range. It is impossible to give a perfect answer to this question without actually having a sample and testing it. Quite often it is possible to be more specific than this, and you typically find dates given within a few decades, although there are variations. When results from a sample come back from a laboratory you may be given several date ranges, each with an associated probability. It is up to the researcher which they feel is accurate enough to include in publication or interpretation.


Who discovered asbestos?

Asbestos has been used for thousands of years, with evidence of its use dating back to ancient civilizations like the Greeks and Romans. However, it was Finnish geologist Johan Gottlieb Gahn who is credited with discovering the mineral in its modern form in the late 18th century.


How does radiocarbon dating or carbon-14 dating work?

Radiocarbon DatingAll organic matter contains carbon, which is an element. But there are different types of carbon, called isotopes. The most common isotope is carbon-12 (or 12C), which (according the article) makes up 98.89 percent of the naturally occurring carbon. There's carbon-13, or 13C, which is much rarer, accounting for only 1.11 percent, and then there's carbon-14, or 14C, which makes up a ridiculously tiny fraction of existing carbon. (The periodic table of the elements also reflects the existence of isotopes by showing a weighted average for the atomic weight of each element, but I digress.)The first two isotopes, 12C and 13C, are stable, but 14C is unstable; that is, it's radioactive! So far, so good. Nothing hard to get your brain around. Living organic matter will have steady and predictable concentrations of each isotope of carbon, pretty much the percentages mentioned above. But dead stuff won't. After something dies, the 14C decays over time (because it is radioactive) and doesn't replenish as it would in a live specimen because the dead thing isn't eating and breathing or otherwise exchanging molecules with the outside world anymore). In other words, the amount of 14C in dead organic matter will grow smaller. And since scientists know exactly how long an amount of 14C takes to decay, they can compare the amount of 14C in a specimen to the amount of 14C a modern piece of organic matter and calculate the age of the specimen. Since it takes 5,568 years for an amount of 14C to decay by 50 percent (half), if a specimen has one half the amount of 14C as a modern piece of organic matter might have, we conclude it is about 5,568 years old.Here's an analogy: Imagine you have a gallon of water to which you add one ounce of blue dye. And say that every 5,568 years you add another gallon of water to the mixture. Doing that basically cuts the concentration of blue dye in half. You then take a gallon of that diluted mixture and add another gallon of pure water to it 5,568 years later. The concentration of blue dye is cut in half again. Now imagine repeating this process for quite some time. If you take a sample of the diluted water and measure the concentration of blue dye, you will be able to determine how many dilutions took place, and since you know the dilutions happen every 5,568 years, you can estimate how old the sample is. See link below for more information.AnswerCarbon-14 builds up in living tissue at a constant rate and starts to break down when the tissue dies. Scientists can measure the amount of carbon-14 in a piece of old wood for instance, and say that because there is only a certain amount left, the tree died 1000 years ago.


How far back can artifacts date back to?

Artifacts can date back thousands to millions of years, depending on the material and preservation conditions. The oldest known artifacts, such as stone tools and cave paintings, date back to millions of years ago.


Where did the earliest evidence of human fossils been located in?

The earliest evidence of human fossils has been located in Africa, specifically in regions such as Ethiopia and Tanzania. These fossils, dating back millions of years, provide crucial insights into the evolutionary history and origins of our species, Homo sapiens.

Related Questions

How far back can you date with carbon dating?

By using carbon 14 dating, scientists can date plants and animals that lived as long as 35,000 years ago.


Only good for dating objects as far back as about 4000 years?

Carbon dating.Answer 2 OOPs wrong, as the half life of C14 is 5730 years.Off hand I can't think of a dating method (that is used) with such a short usefulness.


What is carbon dating mean?

This is how carbon dating works: Carbon is a naturally abundant element found in the atmosphere, in the earth, in the oceans, and in every living creature. C-12 is by far the most common isotope, while only about one in a trillion carbon atoms is C-14. C-14 is produced in the upper atmosphere when nitrogen-14 (N-14) is altered through the effects of cosmic radiation bombardment (a proton is displaced by a neutron effectively changing the nitrogen atom into a carbon isotope). The new isotope is called


How far back can you date fossils by measuring radioactive carbon decay?

50,000 years useing carbon 14


Why cant geologist use the carbon-14 method to date igneous rock and date dinosaur bones?

Geologists cannot use the carbon-14 method to date igneous rocks and dinosaur bones because carbon-14 dating is effective only for organic materials and samples that are less than about 50,000 years old. Igneous rocks form from molten material and do not contain organic carbon, while dinosaur bones, though they are biological in origin, typically date back millions of years, far exceeding the maximum effective range of carbon-14 dating. Instead, other dating methods, such as uranium-lead or potassium-argon dating, are employed for these materials.


Example problems of carbon dating?

The benefits of carbon dating is that it can give a guide as to the age of an artifact or fossil. Several problems exist with carbon dating. First, it only goes back so far. After a while, there is not enough radioactive carbon for the machinery to measure. Second, a sample may be contaminated. If a person picked it up with his bare hands, some of the carbon from his skin may have mixed with the sample. Third, if you want to know how long ago a cave was first occupied, you may miss the mark completely. People may have used the same garbage dump for over a million years.


Why cant they use the carbon 14 method to date dinosuar bones?

The carbon-14 dating method is ineffective for dating dinosaur bones because it can only date organic materials that are up to about 50,000 years old. Dinosaurs went extinct approximately 65 million years ago, far beyond the range of carbon-14 dating. Instead, scientists typically use radiometric dating methods, such as uranium-lead or potassium-argon dating, to determine the age of dinosaur fossils and the surrounding rock layers.


Who invented beauty supplies?

Archaeologists have found evidence of cosmetics or makeup being used in Egypt dating back as far as the fourth millennium BC, including artifacts of eye makeup and objects used for the application of scented ointments.


When was sardonyx discovered?

Sardonyx has been known and used in jewelry since ancient times, dating back as far as the Roman Empire. Its distinctive banded appearance made it a popular gemstone for carving cameos and cabochons.


What is the name of the inventer of soccer?

The game is far too old, to trace back to anyone person. Soccer/Football has roots dating back all the way to 388 BC.


What is the best dating site so far?

eHarmony,Match.com and Date.com are some of the best dating sites so far.


When shailene woodly and daren kagasoff break up but did they get back together again?

on the Secert Life yess. In real their not dating as far as I know.