How is carbon 14 used to determine the age of an object?

Answer 1

carbon

Answer 2

Basically carbon-14 is one isotope of Carbon that is naturally present in living things, but it unstable. So it emits a ball of two protons and two-neutrons to become carbon-12, which is a type of radioactive decay.

But measuring how much carbon-12 is in a formerly living thing compared to carbon-14 and doing some math with what is called a half-life you can date things to within a certain range.

Unfortunately it is not precise enough to date some really old things with much certainty, and it can only be used to date stuff that was once alive.

Answer 3

Radiocarbon decay can only be used to determine the age of rock which contains fossilized animal or plant cells. Radiocarbon dating can only be used to determine the age of objects that were once alive and is of no use in dating geological formations that do not contain some remains of formerly living organisms or that are older than approx 60,000 years of age.

Carbon atoms are contained in most cells of all living things on Earth. Most carbon atoms (98.89 percent) are called carbon-12 because they have 6 neutrons and 6 protons in their nuclei. Most of the remaining atoms (1.11 percent) have 7 neutrons along with their 6 protons and are called carbon-13 atoms, but a very small quantity (called a trace amount) of carbon atoms have 8 neutrons and 6 protons. These and are called carbon-14 atoms.

Carbon-14 atoms are radioactive and are referred to as radiocarbon. They are unstable, and decay slowly by releasing electrons before evolving into nitrogen-14 atoms. A living organisms constantly absorbs carbon in its body systems by respiration and processing nutrients, and the amount of carbon-14 it contains remains fairly constant for as long as it lives. The carbon-14 decays without being replaced after the organism dies and half of the carbon-14 nuclei will disintegrate in about 5,730 years. The amount of carbon-14 that has disintegrated in a fossilized organism can be calculated and used for determining its age.

However due to the short half life of carbon-14, as stated previously it is only of use for dating objects that are less than 60,000 years old. This is a very small fraction of the 4.56 billion year history of Earth. As such other radiometric dating techniques are used on rocks older than this (one example being the Uranium-lead method).

Answer 4

Carbon 14 is used in Carbon dating. It decays to Nitrogen 14 and has a half life of 5,730 years. Typically, Carbon 14 is used for fossil dating for fossils 100-30,000 years old, but older than that, Potassium 40 or Rubidium 87 are more effective.

Answer 5

Carbon 14 is a naturally occurring isotope of carbon. Living organisms use it interchangeably with carbon 12. After death there is no more change - except that the carbon 14 slowly decays into carbon 12. By measuring the ratio between the two isotopes you can calculate how long its been since the organism died.

Answer 6

Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope that decays over time at a known rate. By measuring the amount of Carbon-14 remaining in a sample, scientists can calculate how long it has been since the organism died and estimate its age. This method is commonly used in dating organic materials up to about 50,000 years old.

Answer 7

If they have a long halflife, you can tell how much time has gone by since the element last has changed on earth

Answer 8

Radiocarbon dating is used to appreciate how old are objects from organic origin; the time range is approx. 50 000 years.

Answer 9

the bones of animals