What are the disadvantages of carbon 14?

Answer 1

There are several limitations of carbon 14 dating. Firstly, carbon dating can only be used on objects that were or are living, meaning that man-made objects cannot be tested. Secondly, the sample tested must be quite large in size, because part of the object is broken down and lost when it is cleaned and distilled. The loss of the part may cause an inaccurate date given to the object. Thirdly, Changes in the atmosphere, particularly the thinning of the ozone, cause more Carbon 14 to be produced, so the standard measurement of the Carbon 14 existing in the time used to compare with the fossil must be transferred to the correct must be transferred to the correct amount, and these changes have not yet occurred.
Carbon dating is only effective at dating objects of up to 70,000 years in age

Answer 2

1) the half life of carbon 14 is 5700 years. After 3 half lives the data gets vague, after 5 it's a blur.

2) you must assume that "normal" respiration was occurring at the "beginning" of the dating (if a chair is made of wood stored in a cave for a 100 years, it's the death of the tree and not the construction of the chair that you're dating).

Answer 3

Unhappily for many creationists who criticize evolution, they fail to realize that carbon 14 dating is only rarely used in the context of fossils and mostly used in Archeology. This is because the half-life is just over 5,700 years, which makes it useless for dating the vast majority of rocks as the furthest back in time it will work fairly accurately is about 60,000 years. No use at all for a relatively young rock of 60,000,000 years old.

Answer 4

'''The following answer, which is factually inaccurate, was taken almost verbatim from http://contenderministries.org/evolution/carbon14.php. I will leave it here in it's entirety but add in notations to better the question asker's understanding of the subject.'''

One problem is that it (Carbon-14 Dating) may not be accurate because it relies on several assumptions (or guesses) that have not been proven (using the scientific method) to be true.

1. It assumes the rate of decay of carbon-14 has remained constant over billions of years.
''Radioactive decay rates do not change. Ever.''

2. It assumes the rate of carbon-14 formation has remained constant over billions of years.

''False. See my notation after #3.''

3. It assumes the concentrations of carbon-14 and carbon-12 have remained constant in the atmosphere over billions of years.''

''

''This is false. When scientists perform carbon dating they use a calibration curve (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating#The_need_for_calibration) to compensate for varying levels of carbon 14 in the atmosphere caused by variations in the rate of carbon-14 formation. They do NOT assume the levels of carbon-14 have been constant forever.''

4. It assumes the amount of carbon-14 being presently produced had equaled the amount of carbon-12, so that it had reached a "balance" that does not change.

''This is not only false but completely made up.'''''

'''

5. It assumes all plant and animal life utilize carbon-14 equally as they do carbon-12.

''It assumes no mechanism for straining out some or all of carbon-14 and using only carbon-12. This is because no one has ever show such a mechanism to exist.'' ''

''''The reason long term carbon dating (such as for determining the age of the earth) is not accurate is that we have no idea what the carbon-14 levels were past a certain point.

''

''for the short term (less than 45,000 years) carbon dating is indeed accurate due to calibration curves allowing scientists to compensate for varying levels of carbon-14 in the atmosphere. '' So its like a blind date its not gonna go well now is it da

Answer 5

After perhaps 10 or 20 times the half-life, the remaining amount of carbon-14 will be insignificant, and can't be accurately measured.