Question

Element X has a half-life of 6000 years. If you a fossil and find only 12.5% of the original amount of element X, what would the age of the specimen be?

Answer 1

To get to 12.5% you need several halvings.

Explanation:

`100%->50%->25%->12.5%`
These are three consequtive halvings, each taking 6000 years.

So the specimen will be `3xx6000=18000yrs` old.