explain how carbon dating works?

Answer 1

An incredibly small piece from an artifact is cut off carefully. It is burned (under special controlled conditions), and the Carbon-14 product released is analysed to show the age of the artifact.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating for more info.

Answer 2

There is a radioactive isotope of Carbon, Carbon 14, it has a known decay rate. Since carbon is absorbed by all living things, you can see what the ratio of decayed (non-radioactive) carbon left in the specimen is relative to the radioactive carbon 14 still in it, and work backwards in time to figure out when the specimen died--stopped absorbing carbon. There are charts that show the decay rate for all the radioactive elements and isotopes, it is measured in half lives--the amount of time it takes for a specimen to have decayed enough that it emits half the radioactivity that it did previously. In some elements its actually billions of years, in others like carbon it is a few thousand.

Answer 3

All organic matter on earth contains carbon. Radio-carbon dating measures the level radioactivity present in the small portion of radioactive carbon that reamains in the test substance.

Then, using calulations based on the known half-life (rate of deterioration of radioactivity) of the radioctive carbon present, one can determine how long ago the carbon began loosing it's radioactivity. Thus, based on how much radioactivity is left within it, the test substance can be dated.

Answer 4

The decay rate of carbon is a known constant. By testing how much carbon is in an item, scientists can determine approximately when the decay began and therefore the approximate age of the item.

Answer 5

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.[1] 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.

Measurements are traditionally made by counting the radioactive decay of individual carbon atoms by gas proportional counting or by liquid scintillation counting, but these are relatively insensitive and subject to relatively large statistical uncertainties for small samples (below about 1g carbon). If there is little carbon-14 to begin with, a half-life that long means that very few of the atoms will decay while their detection is attempted (4 atoms/s) /mol just after death, hence e.g. 1 (atom/s)/mol after 10,000 years). Sensitivity has since been greatly increased by the use of accelerator-based mass-spectrometric (AMS) techniques, where all the 14C atoms can be counted directly, rather than only those decaying during the counting interval allotted for each analysis. The AMS technique allows one to date samples containing only a few milligrams of carbon.

Raw radiocarbon ages (i.e., those not calibrated) are usually reported in years "before present" (BP). This is the number of radiocarbon years before 1950, based on a nominal (and assumed constant - see "calibration" below) level of carbon-14 in the atmosphere equal to the 1950 level. They are also based on a slightly off historic value for the half-life maintained for consistency with older publications (see "Radiocarbon half-life" below). See the Note below for the basis of the computations. Corrections for isotopic fractionation have not been included in the present note.

Radiocarbon labs generally report an uncertainty, e.g., 3000±30BP indicates a standard deviation of 30 radiocarbon years. Traditionally this includes only the statistical counting uncertainty and some labs supply an "error multiplier" that can be multiplied by the uncertainty to account for other sources of error in the measuring process. Additional error is likely to arise from the nature and collection of the sample itself, e.g., a tree may accumulate carbon over a significant period of time. Such old wood, turned into an artifact some time after the death of the tree, will reflect the date of the carbon in the wood.

The current maximum radiocarbon age limit lies in the range between 58,000 and 62,000 years. This limit is encountered when the radioactivity of the residual 14C in a sample is too low to be distinguished from the background radiation.


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.

Answer 6

when looking at something, they look at the rate of decingration to date something they look at the carbon deposits.......i think.....

Answer 7

Find out how Wikipedia works first and you will find the answer here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating

Answer 8

This is exactly what wikipedia and seach engines are for.