Concept explainers
Interpretation: The reason why an ancient wood or cloth artifact contains less carbon-14 than recently fabricated articles made of similar materials has to be explained.
Concept introduction: A process for dating ancient articles made from wood or cloth is called radiocarbon dating (or) carbon-14 dating. Radiocarbon dating is based on
When neutrons of high energy from space collide with nitrogen-14, carbon-14 is produced in the atmosphere.
The half-life of
Answer to Problem 30A
When an organism dies, it no longer replenishes itself with carbon-14 from the atmosphere. As the carbon-14 undergoes decay, the amount decreases over time. This assumes that the concentration of carbon-14 in the atmosphere is constant over time.
Explanation of Solution
A method for dating ancient articles made from wood or cloth is called radiocarbon dating (or) carbon-14 dating. The nuclide that is used in dating artifacts is carbon-14
Radiocarbon dating is based on
When neutrons of high energy from space collide with nitrogen-14, carbon-14 is produced in the atmosphere.
The half-life of
Carbon-14 could be used to date wood and cloth artifacts because carbon-14 along with other isotopes of carbons reacts with oxygen to form carbon dioxide.
When an organism dies, it no longer replenishes itself with carbon-14 from the atmosphere. As time passes, the amount of carbon-14 in the artifact decays in a smaller amount. The remaining amount of carbon-14 in an artifact tells the amount of time that is passed between the period the plant was alive and the current age.
Chapter 19 Solutions
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