Biology: Key Questions Essay

The key principle behind radiocarbon-14 dating is plants and animals exchange carbon with their surroundings and thus contain the same ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-14 once an organism dies it no longer exchanges carbon with its surroundings. The carbon-14 will slowly decay at a known rate decreasing the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-14. Since the decay rate and original ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-14 is known we can determine how old a sample is by the amount of carbon-14 remaining. There are two ways to measure the carbon-12 to carbon-14 ratio. The first being beta counting. Beta counting was the first method used to measure carbon-14 levels in a sample. Two different type of beta counting were primarily used. The first of those being liquid

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 (14C), a radioactive isotope of carbon.

Carbon 14 is continuously produced in the atmosphere by the action of cosmic rays on Nitrogen 14.It decays back into 14 N with a half life of 5730 years, carbon dating assumes that the rate of 14 C production in the atmosphere is constant over the long term, which may or may not be true, and that 14 C uptake by organisms stops when the organism dies. Essentially, the proportion of 14 C to 12 C remains stable in a living body until it dies, when no new carbon is taken up, and the 14 C decays. and it is used to date

It is an objective method that provides more accurate ages of artifacts by measuring the amount of C14 present in the artifact and comparing it to an already known reference artifact. According to Michael Gagne, in Dating in Archeology, “Following the death of an organism, any exchange ceases and the carbon 14, which is radioactive and therefore unstable, slowly begins to disintegrate at a known rate (half-life of 5730 years, ie, after this period only half of the total carbon 14 present at the time of death remains). The amount of carbon 14 remaining in the material to date is compared to a reference standard (ratio 14C/total carbon, 12C and 13C) to calculate the time elapsed since its occurrence.” (Gagne, p. 1) This method actually is based on a something that occurs every day on earth and is the foundation of life. Think about it… all living species on Earth including plants and animals exchange carbon dioxide with their environment until they die. Marshall Brain in How Carbon-14 Dating Works describes simply how C14 dating works. Simply said, the way the process works is by measuring the amount of C14 in the artifact, which forms naturally when cosmic rays in the earth’s upper atmosphere strike nitrogen molecules and oxidize to become carbon dioxide. Plants then absorb and continually replenish carbon dioxide until the plant dies or it passes onto animals that eat the plants. After the death of the organism, the amount of C14 in the organism or artifact decreases at a regular pace as decaying occurs. Since C14 has a half-life of 5,730 plus or minus 40 years, the object loses half of its C14 about every 5,700 years. Once the organism dies, it stops taking on new carbon so the ratio of C12 to C14 is the same for every organism. Therefore, the age of and artifact can be determined fairly accurately if scientists compare the ratio of C12 to C14 in an artifact and compare it to the ratio in a

Radiocarbon is sometimes I called carbon-14 dating. Radiocarbon dating consists of Carbon-14 which is an isotope that provides an indispensable aid to archeological research. With a relative short half life a mere 5730 years means that most organic substances older than about 50,000 years cannot be

There are two types of radiocarbon dating, "Absolute Dating", which gives an approximate age of organic material, and "Relative Dating", which gives a history of events, rather than an age. The most common isotope used is Carbon-14 because it is rare in the atmosphere and the burning of fossil fuels barely changes the concentration found in the atmosphere. Carbon-12 and Carbon-13 isotopes are more common in the atmosphere, but the burning of fossil fuels increases their abundance, therefore, making them less reliable ("Radiocarbon-14 Dating"). When performing Absolute Dating using Carbon-14 isotopes, the age is determined based on the amount of decay to the Nitrogen particles. Carbon-14 decays at a constant rate, so an estimation of when the organism died can be made by measuring the amount of carbon present in the organism ("Carbon-14"). Although Carbon-14 is the best known and most used dating method, its half-life is 5730 years, plus or minus 40, therefore it's unable to date material that is millions of years old ("Foundational"). Carbon-14 dating is used in environmental sciences, archaeology, anthropology, and geology. Radiocarbon dating is used to date organic material, as long as there is carbon still present ("Radiocarbon-14

Once each student has received their materials, have the students take the first cup of soil and the seeds in the plastic cup. Remind them these are their seeds and they are going to plant them how they think they would survive. As the students are planting their seeds, walk around and see how they are doing. If a student looks confused and is unsure how to plant their seeds, it might be a good idea to go back to The Tiny Seed and let students refresh their memory.

First, radiocarbon looks at the subatomic particles that constantly bombard the earth and produce high-energy neutrons. When the neutrons collide with the nitrogen atoms present in the earth 's atmosphere, they produce atoms of Carbon 14. These atoms

The formation of polypeptides and protein chains involve a condensation reaction. Condensation reactions are the joining together of two molecules and during the reaction water is released. The reverse of this is polymer disassembly into monomers involves a hydrolysis reaction whereby water is used as a reactant and isn’t released.

Carbon combining with oxygen gives carbon dioxide which plants use for respiration. Conversely, the oxygen plants release as a waste product is used for respiration in animals. Carbon dioxide in the presence of photosynthesis gives:

Radiometric dating is based on analyzing the amount of carbon-14 in an ancient example of once-living substantial, related to what is found in a current sample of active material. The important material on which it is established is that carbon-14 has always been constructed at the same level in the greater atmosphere for all history.

Some people may ask what exactly is a chemical reaction? A chemical reaction is a process that involves rearrangement of the molecular or ionic structure of a substance. There is six types of chemical reactions named Synthesis, Decomposition, Single Replacement, Double Replacement, Combustion, and Acid base reactions.

The age they established was 1180 CE, over 100 years earlier than was previously assumed. The reason for its enhanced effectiveness is based around measuring the basalt samples carbon 14 content, and comparing it with the carbon 14 activity in modern and background samples.

reaction is the rate of loss of a reactant or the rate of formation of

A chemical reaction is the interaction of two or more chemicals that produces a new chemical compound, most reactions require an increase in temperature, pressure, surface area, concentration or the inclusion of a catalysts to speed up the rate of reaction. Chemical reactions can be found in everyday life, without many of us knowing. Either it be a soluble tablet in water, or photosynthesis in a plant. The prerequisites for a reaction are known as the 'Collision Theory '. As stated by M. Ferguson (2016), 'For a reaction to occur, particles must collide, with sufficient energy (also known as activation energy) in the correct orientation to break the existing bonds between the particles '.