Carbon 14 Dating

The radioactive decay of Carbon-14 can be used to date certain kinds of historical objects. You should use the World Wide Web to investigate the science behind this method and write up your findings.

You might like to start with the following sites:

http://www.howstuffworks.com/carbon-14.htm

http://tqd.advanced.org/3471/general_applications.html

You should attempt to find answers to the following questions but before you start you should highlight the questions and 'PRINT SELECTION' then stick it in your exercise book

  1. What isotopes of Carbon are there?

  2. Where does Carbon-14 come from?

  3. How does Carbon-14 decay?

  4. What ages of objects can usefully be dated by the Carbon-14 method?

  5. How accurate is Carbon-14 dating?

  6. What kind of objects can be dated with this method?

  7. Why does the method not work for other kinds of objects?