Carbon+Dating

Carbon Dating By Maud McCole Edited by: Zacory Shakespear, Joey Brundan and Soju Hokari


 * Discovered In:** 1947
 * Discovered By:** Willard Libby
 * Information:**Carbon Dating, also known as radiocarbon dating, or carbon-14 dating, is a variety of radioactive dating which is applicable only to matter which was once living and presumed to be in equilibrium**​** with the atmosphere. A plant will absorb carbon-14 through photosynthesis. Animals then acquire it through eating plants. Since the amount of carbon in the atmosphere has remained relatively stable, the amount of carbon-14 compared with the amount of carbon-12 when a plant or animal dies is known. Carbon-14 decays at a steady rate, thus the age of an organism can be found if the ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12 is known.

If you had a fossil that had 10 Percent carbon-14 compared to a living sample, then that fossil would be 18,940 years old.

Is the formula used to determine how old some thing is based on how much carbon 14 is left.