Author Question: Describe how the carbon-14 dating technique works. What will be an ideal ... (Read 71 times)

Starlight · **on:** Jul 15, 2018

Describe how the carbon-14 dating technique works. What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

What is carbon-14 dating useful for in terms of age and type of sample? What will be an ideal response?

kaykay69 · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 15, 2018

Answer to Question 1

Carbon 14 is constantly formed in the upper atmosphere when cosmic rays strike the upper atmosphere
gases, splitting their neutrons into protons and neutrons. A neutron strikes the nucleus of a nitrogen
atom, and is absorbed; a proton is emitted. The atom has now become carbon 14, which is rapidly
assimilated into the carbon cycle, along with carbon 12 and 13, and absorbed by all living organisms.
When an organism dies, carbon 14 is not replenished, and the ratio of carbon 14 to carbon 12
decreases as carbon 14 decays back to nitrogen by a single beta decay step.

Answer to Question 2

Carbon 14 has a half-life of 5,730 years when it decays to carbon 12. Its short half-life makes it useful
for specimens younger than 70,000 years, and it is generally used to date former living material.
Carbon 14 is useful in archeology and is crucial to understanding the events of the latter portion of the
Pleistocene Epoch.