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Would carbon dating work if carbon-14 atoms did not decay at a constant rate and why?
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
Statistically carbon-14 atoms decay at a constant rate.
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∙ 6y ago
Wiki User
∙ 13y agono
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Why is carbon dating only useful for dating living things?
The process in which humans carbon date things involves the subject to be unliving, or rather, by the end of the process they would be unliving.
How does radioactive dating relate to fossils and radioactive waste?
There are a number of types of radiometric dating. Carbon-14 dating, which is perhaps best known, can only be used for things some thousands of years old at most, and so is not particularly useful for fossils. Other types of radiometric dating, however, are good for hundreds of thousands or millions of years, and these are very useful for fossils. In fact they can be used to estimate the ages of various kinds of rocks. Radioactive waste is a pollutant that affects some radiometric dating techniques, skewing them. For example, above ground nuclear testing in the 1950s and 1960s produced waste carbon-14, almost doubling the amount in the atmosphere for some time. This would make samples from that period appear too new. Most radioactive materials in nuclear waste or pollution would not have this sort of effect, however. In order to influence radiometric dating, the material measured has to be part of the pollution or has to be generated from it. Carbon-14 results from a collision of a neutron with nitrogen-13 (a hydrogen atom is also generated). But this happens in the upper atmosphere as a result of cosmic rays. There are very few sources of neutrons on Earth, with uranium-235 probably being the most common. So ordinary nuclear waste from such sources as power plants will not usually skew carbon-14 dating. On the other hand, the isotopes other than carbon-14 that are used in radiodating may be among those in nuclear waste. Among the isotopes that might be affected are those used in iodine-xenon dating, rubidium-strontium, and potassium-argon dating. Nuclear pollutants might include these isotopes in them, and so exposure would possibly skew results. There are other forms of pollution that affect carbon dating. Burning of fossil fuels increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere without increasing the amount of carbon-14. This would make some samples from the period after about 1700 appear too old.
Are Tom Higgenson and Delilah DiCrescenzo dating?
Tom Higgenson met someone in NYC and promised her he would write her a song... he isn't dating her. He is dating a girl named Angie I believe.
Is Niall Horan dating Selena Gomez?
Niall Horan and selena Gómez aré not dating,why arent they?Because we al know that Selena wants justin back and if Niall and selena were dating Justin Bieber Would of got mad at Niall Horan because Niall and justin aré best friends.So The Answer Is NO THEY ARÉ NOT DATING Niall Would never do that to justin or will he?
Would Miley Cyrus date a 10 year old?
obviously not , his current girlfriend is 24 .........
Why would carbon dating work if carbon atoms did not decay at a constant rate?
Statistically carbon-14 atoms decay at a constant rate.
Could carbon dating be used on stone tablets?
Carbon Dating can only be used on something that contains carbon. Therefore the stone tablet would have to have Carbon it it's structure (Carbonate) , or it would need to be covered in soot or ash.
What are the benefits of using carbon 14?
Carbon-14 dating is a way of determining the age of certain archaeological artifacts of a biological origin up to about 50,000 years old. It is used in dating things such as bone, cloth, wood and plant fibers that were created in the relatively recent past by human activities.
How can carbon-14 dating provide the age of a dead animal or plant?
The half-life of carbon is known in living organisms- the amount of carbon-14 remains constant, after death. no new carbon-14 enters the organism, scientists measure the proportion of carbon-14 in the organism and calculate how it differs from the amount that would have been there if the organism would be alive, from this differenct, they determine the age.
What information would you need for radioactive dating?
You need to know the activity at the start of the interval in question. You measure the activity at the end of the interval in question, compare the two, and back calculate the age. Commonly, in Carbon-14 dating, we use the ratio of Carbon-14 to Carbon-12/Carbon-13, and calibrate by using other methods of dating. This works because the ratio is (relatively) constant when the carbonaceous material is alive, and starts to decay with a 5700 year halflife at death.
What percent of carbon14 is left after 5 half-lives?
3.125% would be left over.
Can a stone arrowhead be dated by carbon-14?
Carbon-14 dating is not typically used for dating stone arrowheads because carbon dating is primarily used for organic materials like bone or wood. Stone arrowheads themselves do not contain carbon-14, so an alternative dating method, like thermoluminescence dating, would be more suitable for dating stone artifacts.
Is carbon dating is a type of technology currently used to study the past?
Yes, measurements of the ratio of carbon-14 (radioactive) to carbon-12 (nonradioactive) in a sample is used as a type of clock to determine the age of the sample. BTW, ever wonder why C14 dating works? Presumably, the organism is eating a constant proportion of C14 while it lives. So when it dies, the C14 is not being replenished. Sounds awful fishy to me, but what else is there? I would have like the process better if the organism were making C14 at a constant rate-- but alas, not so.
What are the applications of ordinary differential equations in mathematics?
Carbon dating would be one thing...
What would Proust say about the composition of all carbon dioxide molecules?
He would insist that all Carbon Dioxide molecules have the same composition, by his Law of Constant Composition.
How do you carbon date rocks 10 million years old?
You cannot. Carbon dating is not useful for dating things more than about 50,000 years old. You would have to use a different radioisotope to date something 10 million years old. Potassium-Argon dating would work for some rocks.
How do people know dinosaurs lived?
Our most provident evidence would be carbon dating and fossils.
