Palentogists HEEELP with fossil question

peanut273 | 19:49 Mon 12th Jan 2009 | Science

2 Answers

Radiocarbon dating relies on using the natural radioactive decay of the carbon 14 isotope to identify when fossils and artefacts were formed. The half life of carbon 14 is 5568 years, and the current ratio of this isotope to 'normal' carbon 12 is around 1: 1 trillion (i.e. for every atom of carbon 14 there are around 1 trillion atoms of carbon 12). A recent fossil is found to have a ratio of carbon 14 : carbon 12 of 1:6 trillion. Roughly how old is the fossil?

HELP!!!!!!

astronomy beginner

urinals

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peanut273

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hello???

Huderon

If you're happy to do a bit of math which includes a logarithm and can work out the percentage of C14 found in the fossil in relation to what would be the norm, this page gives you a way to work out the answer.

If I've read the question properly, I'd say the C14 content of the sample is 1/6th of what the norm is. Convert that to a percentage and figure out what the "natural logarithm" is and you should get a fairly good answer. I'm not up to percentages at this time of night, and logs are a long forgotten black art.

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