Question

How is the half life of carbon 14 dating used?

Answer 1

Carbon-14 dating is used for determining the age of archaeological artifacts of biological origin (could be bone, fiber, wood, plant remnants etc.) up to about 50,000 years old.

For this, If a fossil has say 25% of carbon-14 as compared to living sample than it is 11460 years old (as it has one-fourth carbon it is 5730*2=11460 years old).

General formula for time `t` is `(5730/-0.693)ln(N_t/N_0)`. As in the above example `(N_t/N_0=0.25)` and `ln0.25=-1.386`

`t=(5730/-0.693)*(-1.386)=5730*2=11460` years.