Carbon dating is possible because
Correct answer: B. living things take in carbon 14 while alive, and it then decays with a known half life after death
- A. carbon 14 is stable
- B. living things take in carbon 14 while alive, and it then decays with a known half life after death
- C. all carbon is radioactive
- D. carbon 14 is produced in the body
Explanation
While an organism lives it exchanges carbon with its surroundings and holds the atmospheric ratio of carbon 14 to carbon 12, but after death intake stops and the carbon 14 decays with a half life of about 5730 years. Measuring the remaining ratio therefore gives the time since death. The method is useful up to roughly 50,000 years, after which too little carbon 14 remains.
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About Half-life and Rate of Decay
Half-life is the time required for half the unstable nuclei in a sample to decay, and it remains constant for a particular radioactive nuclide. Questions use the exponential decay law, decay constant, activity, remaining quantity and mean life. Radioactive decay is random for individual nuclei but predictable for large samples.
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