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Radioactive decay may be used in carbon dating, testing for the amounts of a radioactive carbon isotope (C14) in the remains of some organism. C14 obviously only works on organic material which was once alive, such as wood or bone. Because C14 has a very short half life, less than 6000 years, it does not work on material much over 60,000 years (about ten half lives).

Potassium/Argon is another useful set of isotopes that can yield the ages of rocks and inorganic matter far older--many millions of years old.

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Scientists used radioactive decay to measure what?

Scientists used radioactive decay to measure the age of rocks, artifacts, and archaeological materials. By measuring the amount of radioactive isotopes present in a sample and comparing it to the known half-life of the isotope, scientists can determine how long ago the material formed. This technique is known as radiometric dating and allows researchers to establish the age of objects thousands to billions of years old.


Does carbon dating use nuclear fusion?

No, carbon dating does not use nuclear fusion. Carbon dating is a method used to determine the age of organic materials by measuring the remaining levels of a radioactive isotope called carbon-14. This process involves the decay of carbon-14, not nuclear fusion.


What are the natural process on which radioactive dating is based?

Radioactive dating is based on the natural process of radioactive decay, whereby unstable isotopes of elements decay into more stable isotopes over time. By measuring the amount of parent and daughter isotopes in a sample, scientists can determine the age of the material. This method is commonly used in geology and archaeology to date rocks and artifacts.


What time can Radioactivity date?

Radioactivity dating can be used to estimate the age of rocks, fossils, and artifacts that contain radioactive elements. The technique relies on measuring the amount of radioactive isotopes and their decay products in a sample to determine its age. This method is particularly useful for dating objects that are thousands to billions of years old.


Which of these four radioactive elements would you choose to date a fossil from the most recent epoch?

Four elements are not mentioned but fossils contain organic material that means carbon compounds so carbon-13 isotope is more suitable, in case of radioactive elements that isotope is most suitable which have the half life period in millions of years.

Related Questions

What elements are used in radioactive dating?

don't know


What types of elements are useful for dating materials?

Radioactive elements such as carbon-14, uranium, and potassium-argon are commonly used for dating materials. The decay rates of these elements provide a way to estimate the age of the material based on the amount of the element remaining. Other methods, such as dendrochronology and thermoluminescence, can also be used for dating certain materials.


What radioactive element is not commonly used in dating archaeological artefacts?

The most often used radioactive elements used in radiometric dating are carbon, potassium-argon and uranium-lead.Other elements are not, or very rarely used.


What is the process of abdsolut dating?

Absolute dating relies on radioactive decay of elements in a rock. When an igneous rock is formed it may contain elements that are a mixture.


Is a geological dating method based on the decay rates of radioactive elements?

Radio metric dating.


Determining the dates of old objects by using radioactive elements is called dating?

radiometric


Are all the radioactive elements found in the last group of the Periodic Table?

No, many other elements are radioactive or have radioactive isotopes. Examples of this are carbon 14, which is used in carbon dating, Radon, Krypton, Hydrogen, Iodine, and many others.


How do you carryout radiometric dating?

By the use of isotopes of radioactive elements through the determination of their half life.


What are the uses of each 5 radioactive elements?

- sources of energy - sources of penetrant radiations - smoke detectors - uses in medicine - uses as radioactive tracers - uses in radioactive dating of rocks


What do you use to find absolute age through radioactive dating?

You measure the amount of radioactive decay that is present in certain elements that were present when the rock formed from melt.


Why scientists use radioactive dating?

To figure out how old something is based how long it takes elements in the sample to decay.


What happens during radioactive dating?

Radioactive dating is carried out with substances which were formed at some unknown point in the past and contained a known proportion of a radioactive isotope of some element. Radioisotopes decay into other elements at a fixed and known rate. So, if you know how much of the radioactive isotope is still left in the sample, then you can work out how long it would have taken for the rest to have decayed into other elements. That gives the age of the sample.