2007-01-17 16:13:39 · 5 answers · asked by trap gurl 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
This is also called carbon dating.
Everything absorbs carbon, doesn't matter if your alive or not. But nothing lets the carbon go. The absorption is so slow it's not lethal. And we use radiation to check the half life and can use that data to tell how long it's been absorbing carbon, which tells us how old it is. Now the younger it is, the less accurate the reading.
2007-01-17 16:23:08 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
almost anything buried for 100s or thousands of years.
Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring isotope carbon-14 to determine the age of carbonaceous materials up to about 60,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" (BP), "Present" being defined as AD 1950. Such raw ages can be calibrated to give calendar dates.
The technique of radiocarbon dating was discovered by Willard Frank Libby and his colleagues in 1949 during his tenure as a professor at the University of Chicago. Libby estimated that the steady state radioactivity concentration of exchangeable carbon-14 would be about 14 disintegrations per minute (dpm) per gram carbon (ca 230 mBq/g). In 1960, Libby was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his method to use carbon-14 (14C) for age determination.
2007-01-18 00:21:06 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I just wanted to get this straight: Carbon dating is NOT the only way of dating by radioactivity!! Dinosaurs have NEVER been dated by Carbon dating. Carbon dating only reaches as far as 30.000 to 60.000 (for the most elaborate techniques). Only remains of living organisms can be dated by carbon dating, at is based on the carbon cycle in metabolism. Stones don't have a metabolism!!!
2007-01-18 13:02:13 · answer #3 · answered by Dr. Zaius 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think the most obvious is the findings of dinasaur bones and reptiles bones dated by carbon dating so that we know they were from thousands of years ago.
Rocks and meteorites are also carbon dated to determine their age. Scientists know of meteroites that hit on Earth many thousands of years ago.
The original ships used in the Civil War (Monitor and Merrimac) were tested by carbon dating to determine their realism.
Moon dust brought back by the astronauts has been carbon dated to show how old the moon is.
2007-01-18 00:29:13 · answer #4 · answered by vgordon_90 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The age of the Earth, approx. 4.5billion years old.
2007-01-18 12:23:58 · answer #5 · answered by odessy 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋