How does carbon dating work?

Answer 1

How is it mathematics?

Radio carbon dating works on the principle of radioactive decay.

This isotope of carbon C-14 which is radioactive is present in all living beings through air we breathe, which has a specific half life of 5730years.

Once a living thing dies, its carbon isotope begins to decay.
We know the carbon present at the time of death
if u count the amount of carbon left now, we can calculate the time of its death.

N = No . e^(lambda.t)
lambda is decay constant

More details can be found in physics textbooks not in mathematics

Answer 2

Carbon 14 dating is the proocess of estimating the age of once-living material by measuring the amont of a radioactive isotope of carbon present in the material. The half life of carbon-14 is about 5730 years. This means that half of the carbon-14 atoms now present in a plant or animal that dies today will decay in the next 5730 years. Half of the remaining carbon-14 atoms will then decay in the following 5730 years, and so on. This carbon-14 dating enables us to probe as much as 50,000 years into the past. Beyond this time spam, there is too little carbon-14 remaining to permit an accurate analysis.
Hope this will help.

Answer 3

Carbon molecules can vary in size. The atomic size can be 12, 13 or 14. All of the carbon atoms contain 12 protons and 0, 1 or 2 neutrons. Carbon 12 and 13 account for 99.99999999% of all of the carbon molecules in the world and are completely stable. Carbon 14 is the rarest form of carbon and is radio active.

All carbon-based life absorbs carbon 14 while it is living and ceases to absorb it when it dies. The carbon 14 molecule eventually decays into nitrogen. It has a predicable half-life. This means that by calculating the amount of carbon 14 and nitrogen in organic material, we can get a good approximation of the age.

Te amount of C14 is compared with the amount in the atmosphere because the amount of C14 that is produced in the atmosphere is constant. Neutron radiation bombards carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere to form C14.

Answer 4

The carbon in plants comes from carbon dioxide in the air, and the carbon in animals comes from plants.

The level of the radioactive isotope carbon 14 remains stable in the atmosphere because as it decays, more is made due to the action of ultraviolet light on carbon in carbon dioxide.

Living things contain carbon and when they die the carbon 14 undergoes radioactive decay at a known rate, but the carbon in dead things becomes less radioactive over time since they don't happen to be the atmosphere.

By measuring the level of carbon 14 in a dead thing it is possible to calculate how old it is.

Answer 5

OK...here's how it works:

Cosmic rays hitting atoms in the atmosphere cause nuclear fission, producing neutrons which bombard N 14-7 to produce C 14-6 and H 1-1. C-14 has a long half life and slowly reverts to N-14 by beta decay. The atmosphere contains a constant concentration of C-14 as 14-CO2, which enters into plants and animals via the carbon cycle. Thus all living things have a constant proportion of C-14 in their carbon content. However, when an animal or plant dies, replacement of carbon 14 stops but decay continues. By comparing the C-14 content of an archaeological sample with that of a similar living species, and allowing for changes in the atmospheric content of carbon-14 over the years, it is possible to estimate the age of the sample.

The calculation works out as follows:

C(t) = C(0)*e^(-k*t) ==> t = ln[C(t)/C(0)] / -k

where:
C(t) is the number of counts of C-14 in an archaelogical sample
C(0) is strictly speaking the number of counts of C-14 in the sample at the time of its death, but this is obviously difficult to measure, so a similar living species is taken, and its C-14 count is adjusted by looking at changes in atmospheric levels of C-14 over recent years.
k = degradation rate constant of C-14, which can be worked out as: k = ln 2 / t(0.5) where t(0.5) is the half-life of C-14, which is approximately 5690 years.

Answer 6

Actually, it doesn't. They only persume carbon has a steady rate of decay. It's based on assumtion. It's really not scientific or acurate, although many like to think it is. They took an uncooked chicken drumstick, cleaned off the raw meat and carbon dated it. The test indicated that it was supposedly 300 years old. If you hear carbon dating or the word evolution.....don't believe it.

Answer 7

the carbon has an isotopes which undergo disintegration to other form of stable isotopic form in this process it takes some millions of years or even less for some substances
depending on this the half life-period is calculated which is the time taken for half of that carbon substance has decayed.in-fact each and every particle of world has carbon hence by the idea of halflifeperiods the ages of mummies and archeological excavationscan be carried out and one can tell the age of that substance depending on the carbon unstable isotope to be decayed. this answer is provided to u by vijay INDIA

Answer 8

To find out how old something is they look at the carbon in it and use the half life of carbon to find the age of it.

Answer 9

As soon as something dies it starts releasing carbon 14 at a very specific rate - by measuring the current levels of C14 you can work back to when it died

can be very unreliable as nowadays there is much radiation interferance especialy following the nuclear explosions post 1945

Answer 10

everything here on earth is carbon. plants,animals ,us etc..carbon starts decaying at a predetermined rate for everything after death..thats how they can take a bit of tree or plant or person and find out how old they are.. because its a definite decline or breakdown in the carbon.. they test it to find out how old it is by the amount of carbon that has broken down ..