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Do you mean carbon dating?

Carbon dating is a process that scientists use to try to ascertain the age of an item by analyzing the amount of a radioactive carbon isotope that is present in the item. Generally this is used to date biological items. Like, really old trees and stuff. The percent of the radioactive isotope in the specimen is accumulated to normal levels as the thing was alive, after it is dead it stops absorbing new carbon and thus by measuring the ratio of isotopes that are decaying we can determine the age of the item. (using the half-life of the radioactive isotope)

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16y ago

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