how does radioactive dating work?

Answer 1

Pardon? Did you mean radiometric dating? That's where they take the known have life of an isotope (most commonly a carbon isotope) and count backwards to when it started in an attempt to find the date of origin. Otherwise, I'd guess it's some sort of Superhero Dating Service. I mean, where else is the Toxic Avenger going to find a girl?

Answer 2

You will be likely to get more answers by using the label "radioactive carbon dating" (the most common type of radioactive dating) because on first glance, the question seems to be about a new personal dating service.

I found the following text on an educational website and they've done a far better job with the answer than I would have:

"Because the radioactive half-life of a given radioisotope is not affected by temperature, physical or chemical state, or any other influence of the environment outside the nucleus save direct particle interactions with the nucleus, then radioactive samples continue to decay at a predictable rate. If determinations or reasonable estimates of the original composition of a radioactive sample can be made, then the amounts of the radioisotopes present can provide a measurement of the time elapsed."

more information can be found at:

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/nuclear/cardat.html

Answer 3

It's like regular dating, only with a 50 yr half life.

Seriously, though, I think you mean carbon dating. Basically, all living things are mostly made of carbon. A small portion of this carbon is in the form of Carbon-14, an unstable radioactive isotope. Once an organism dies, the C-14 in the organism begins to disintegrate. Because it disintegrates at a steady, known rate, scientists can measure the amount of C-14 remaining and use a scientific formula to determine the age of the sample.

Answer 4

It uses the fact that radioactive elements decay - a parent element decays to a daughter element. E.g Carbon 14 decays to Carbon 12.
However it has 3 fundamental assumptions:
That you know the amount of parent and daughter originally present.
That the rate of decay has been constant.
That the measured rock has not had parent or daughter elements added or leached out.

All of these assumptions are unverifiable. Radiometric dating is very unreliable - volcanic rock known to be be just 200 years old was dated as 3 billion years old!

See refs below for loads of articles - some quite technical.

Answer 5

In layman's terms, certain carbon molecules within the object have been changes in such a way to make what is called a carbon isotope. These carbon isotopes only last a known amount of time. These isotopes give off a certain amount of radioactive radiation which directly corresponds to it's age. By measuring the amount of radiation given off by the isotope, scientists can determine how long ago that isotope was created and therefore how old it is.

Answer 6

Well you find a nice looking radioactive isotope in a local bar, and casually walk over. Introduce yourself and ask, 'Hey babe, come here often?'

Oh, the other kind of dating? Radiometric dating is a technique used to date materials based the decay rates of naturally occurring isotopes.

For example, radiocarbon dating is a method that uses the naturally occurring isotope carbon-14 to determine the age of things like trees, which contain carbon.

Answer 7

in all living things there is a bit of radiation simply from having existed on earth. scientists take a sample of skin and by seeing how much radioactivity is still present they can tell how long it has been there becasue different types of radiation are depleted in a specific exponential rate*. which also means it loses a ton at first then slows down but never quite runs out completely.

for human bodies they prefer to use carbon 14 dating. it must just be the easiest to find.

*exponential meaning you keep cutting it in half. it'll get really small really quick, but it'll never be all the way gone.

Answer 8

Take carbon 14 for example. All life contains carbon and has some radioctive c14 in it also. Radioactive isotopes have a half life ( how long it takes for half of it to turn from c14 to regular carbon). By measuring how much c14 is left in a sample that once lived they can tell how old it is. Tree ring dating is much more accurate. Maybe online video dating is best.

Answer 9

Carbon dating is probably the most common. carbon-12 is the most common form of carbon, but other forms exist (these are called isotopes). some of the forms are radioactive, which means then have a half life. a half life on 10 minutes means that every ten minutes, half of the original mass/weight is gone. for example if you have 100grams after 10mins you will have 50grams, after another 10mins (total of 20mins) you will have 25(not zero, it never actually disappears). if the half life is known (which it usually is) the the original mass/ the lenght of time in existence can be calculated. this calculation of lenght of time in existence is radioactive dating (carbon dating if we are checking for carbon-13 isotope)

Answer 10

radio active dating is used to know the age of a particular organism or mostly a fossil in this process carbon-14 a radio active isotope is used the ratio between carbon 12 and 14 is constant in all organism c-12 gets disintegrated but c-14 gets remains caluculating the half life period of c-14 in a fossil u will get to know the age