According to Wikipedia, Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was developed in the late 1940s at the University of Chicago by Willard Libby, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in 1960. It is based on the fact that carbon- 14 is constantly being created in the atmosphere by the interaction of cosmic rays with atmospheric nitrogen. The resulting carbon-14 combines with atmospheric oxygen to form radioactive carbon dioxide, which is incorporated into plants by photosynthesis; animals then acquire carbon-14 by eating the plants. When the animal or plant dies, it stops exchanging carbon with its environment, and thereafter the amount of carbon-14 it contains begins to decrease as the carbon-14 undergoes radioactive decay. Measuring the amount of carbon-14 in a sample from a dead plant or animal, such as a piece of wood or a fragment of bone, provides information that can be used to calculate when the animal or plant died. The older a sample is, the less carbon-14 there is to be detected, and because the half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730 years, the oldest dates that can be reliably measured by this process date to around 50,000 years ago, although special preparation methods occasionally permit accurate analysis of older samples. Suppose an archaeologist has recently unearthed a set of short-faced bear bone fragments and laboratory analysis found that the bone fragments have lost 87.1% of their original carbon-14 content. Determine the approximate age of the bone fragments. years old. The bone fragments are approximately
According to Wikipedia, Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was developed in the late 1940s at the University of Chicago by Willard Libby, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in 1960. It is based on the fact that carbon- 14 is constantly being created in the atmosphere by the interaction of cosmic rays with atmospheric nitrogen. The resulting carbon-14 combines with atmospheric oxygen to form radioactive carbon dioxide, which is incorporated into plants by photosynthesis; animals then acquire carbon-14 by eating the plants. When the animal or plant dies, it stops exchanging carbon with its environment, and thereafter the amount of carbon-14 it contains begins to decrease as the carbon-14 undergoes radioactive decay. Measuring the amount of carbon-14 in a sample from a dead plant or animal, such as a piece of wood or a fragment of bone, provides information that can be used to calculate when the animal or plant died. The older a sample is, the less carbon-14 there is to be detected, and because the half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730 years, the oldest dates that can be reliably measured by this process date to around 50,000 years ago, although special preparation methods occasionally permit accurate analysis of older samples. Suppose an archaeologist has recently unearthed a set of short-faced bear bone fragments and laboratory analysis found that the bone fragments have lost 87.1% of their original carbon-14 content. Determine the approximate age of the bone fragments. years old. The bone fragments are approximately
Linear Algebra: A Modern Introduction
4th Edition
ISBN:9781285463247
Author:David Poole
Publisher:David Poole
Chapter6: Vector Spaces
Section6.7: Applications
Problem 16EQ
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Transcribed Image Text:According to Wikipedia,
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for
determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of
radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon.
The method was developed in the late 1940s at the University of Chicago by Willard Libby, who
received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in 1960. It is based on the fact that carbon-
14 is constantly being created in the atmosphere by the interaction of cosmic rays with
atmospheric nitrogen. The resulting carbon-14 combines with atmospheric oxygen to form
radioactive carbon dioxide, which is incorporated into plants by photosynthesis; animals then
acquire carbon-14 by eating the plants. When the animal or plant dies, it stops exchanging
carbon with its environment, and thereafter the amount of carbon-14 it contains begins to
decrease as the carbon-14 undergoes radioactive decay. Measuring the amount of carbon-14 in
a sample from a dead plant or animal, such as a piece of wood or a fragment of bone, provides
information that can be used to calculate when the animal or plant died. The older a sample
is, the less carbon-14 there is to be detected, and because the half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730
years, the oldest dates that can be reliably measured by this process date to around 50,000
years ago, although special preparation methods occasionally permit accurate analysis of older
samples.
Suppose an archaeologist has recently unearthed a set of short-faced bear bone fragments and laboratory
analysis found that the bone fragments have lost 87.1% of their original carbon-14 content.
Determine the approximate age of the bone fragments.
years old.
The bone fragments are approximately
hp
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