How is carbon-14 used to determine the age of objects? Detailed answer

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How is carbon-14 used to determine the age of objects? Detailed answer

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How is carbon-14 used to determine the age of objects?

All living things contain carbon. They also contain small amounts of carbon-14, a radioactive form of carbon. Using carbon-14, scientists can determine the age of trees, clothing, and anything that was once alive. The use of carbon-14 for this purpose is called radioactive aging. Radioactive carbon helps determine the age of objects that are up to 50 years old. The rate at which radioactive elements decay is called the half-life.

The half-life is the time it takes for half the atoms of an element to decay. The half-life of carbon-14 is about 5500 years. This means that 5500 years after the death of an animal or plant, only half of the carbon-14 atoms that were originally in them will remain in the dead organisms. After 11 years, only a quarter, after 000 years - an eighth of the original amount, and so on.

Suppose a piece of old wood is found in an ancient tomb. In the laboratory, it can be heated and turned into carbon, or burned to release various gases containing carbon dioxide. Carbon or carbon dioxide contains several carbon-14 atoms. These atoms decay. When decaying, tiny particles leave the atom at high speed. Carbon or carbon dioxide is placed in a very sensitive instrument called a Geiger counter. It takes into account particles given off by carbon-14 atoms. Based on the number of these particles, scientists make a conclusion about the amount of carbon-14 in the sample.

Scientists know how much carbon-14 is contained in the same amount of living wood. Comparing this number with the amount of carbon-14 left in the ancient sample, scientists give the age of the tree. For example, if an ancient tree found contains half the number of carbon-14 atoms contained in a living tree, then the sample is about 5500 years old.

Author: Likum A.

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

Why didn't they believe Marco Polo?

The famous Venetian traveler Marco Polo, who visited China, was mistaken for an inventor in his homeland when he told in his book that the Chinese junks he saw took on board 300-400 people. However, the existence of such large ships was also confirmed by the XNUMXth-century Arab geographer Ibn Battuta, who reported that he had seen ships in China that could carry up to a thousand people.

The distrust of Europeans is quite understandable. At that time, in Europe that considered itself civilized, there were only small naves and cogs, while the Nanjing navy consisted of more than 2000 ships and was the largest in the world! It also included the nine-masted junk "Zheng He" with a displacement of 3100 tons and a length of 164 meters. Apparently it was the longest sailboat in the world.

The Chinese junks had a very beautiful hull, distinguished by a high stern, a sharp bow and a flat bottom. Instead of a keel, they had a large rudder. On the masts were lug sails made of mats, which folded like blinds.

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