He measured the half-life of Carbon-14 to be about 5,568 years.However after about 50,000 years there is so little Carbon-14 left in thespecimen that it is very hard, almost impossible, to calculate its age. Libby Was the man who first developed the idea and procedure forCarbon dating. A reaction with a large rate constanthas a short half-life.” (Jones & Atkins) “The half-life of a first-order reaction is characteristic of the reaction andindependent of the initial concentration. Ln2 = k(half-life), where k is therate constant fro C14 To get the half-live of Carbon-14 we let =. This is a first order reaction equationand the rate at which it the reaction proceeds over time can be modeled by theequations: If you have a certain amount of aradioactive material, its half-life is the time it takes for half of thematerial you started out with to decay.Ĭarbon-14 decays back into nitrogen. In this way, by measuring the amount of Carbon-14 inthe body of a prehistoric animal or plant, a scientist can deduce when theplant or animal died.Īll radioactive materials have a half-life. Once aplant or animal dies the Carbon is no longer being regenerated and so theCarbon-14 starts to decay. However, plants and animalsthat are still alive constantly replace the supply of carbon in their systemsand so the amount of Carbon-14 in the system stays almost constant. It turns out to be radioactive and decays over time.Īll organic material has decaying Carbon-14 in it. ![]() (Ham, Snelling, & Wieland)Ordinary nitrogen is converted into Carbon-14 however it is not a stableelement. Carbon-14 is manufactured in theupper atmosphere by the action of cosmic rays. Scientists call theisotope with molar mass around 14, Carbon-14. These atoms have one or twomore neutrons in the nucleus than most Carbon atoms. The normal molar mass of Carbon is around12, however there are a few Carbon atoms that have a molar mass of about 13,and even fewer that have a molar mass of about 14. The element Carbon is in all living things, it is a basic building block forthe construction of organic material. they have the same number of Protons and Electrons in the atom,but they have a different number of Neutrons in the nucleus, so they havedifferent atomic masses. Isotopes are atoms of the sameelement, i.e. (Poole) But how is this done? What are the ides behindcarbon dating?Ītoms of given elements have different Isotopes. Some have saved themselves several thousands of dollars by testing thepiece before they bought it and finding out that it is not the original, but avery clever modern copy. (Poole) Fine art collectorshave used Carbon dating to determine if a piece of antique art is actuallygenuine. Places where historians believed that human civilization came toexit say, only 2,000 years ago, have actually been proven to have had some formof human civilization more than 4,000 years ago. (Poole) Many items that have been thought to come from one time havebeen tested and found out to actually come from a few thousands yearsbeforehand. Because of this methodChemistry has become intertwined with History, Archeology, Anthropology, andGeology. Scientists use Carbon dating for telling the age of an old object, whose originand age cannot be determined exactly by normal means. Ever wonder what “Carbon dating” means and why it is soimportant? In this article I hope to explain the theoretical and physicalscience behind Carbon dating, and discuss how it affects our lives and thevalidity of the process. ![]() Most everyone has heard of Carbon dating on the news or elsewhere sometime inthe past years.
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