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Radiocarbon Dating Accurate

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Radiocarbon dating, which is quite often referred to as Carbon-14, or C14, is probably used the most of all absolute dating techniques. The method is used to date all sorts of artifacts including bones, cloth, and wood, in addition to plants. For artifacts up to about 50,000 years old, it is one of the most specific methods of dating available. In the late 1940’s, C-14 was developed by Willard Libby. Archeologists use this dating method, which is the standard in the scientific industry to this date. According to the Kelly Long in Why is Radiocarbon Dating Important to Archeology, “In 1948, American chemist Willard Liberty, who worked on the development of the atomic bomb, published the first set of development in absolute dating in archeology …show more content…

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

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