- #1
dramadeur
- 19
- 0
Carbon-14 is an unstable isotope of carbon, with a half-life of 5730 years. Suppose a tree sample is 8170 years old. What is the ratio of carbon-14 in the sample today, to the amount of carbon-14 when the tree was alive?
Suppose the amount of carbon-14 in a sample is observed to be 7 percent of the amount for a living plant. Then what is the age of the sample?
Alright, so if half-life is 5730, then full life is 11460 years
but the tree is just 8170 years old
so Carbon's atoms are still alive, right?
Does the problem ask me to find the ratio of atoms? Is it possible that some atoms got "diffused/fissioned"?
How do I know how many atoms ... got diffused... and into which elements
I'm reading blank with this problem, I don't get it at all...
Suppose the amount of carbon-14 in a sample is observed to be 7 percent of the amount for a living plant. Then what is the age of the sample?
Alright, so if half-life is 5730, then full life is 11460 years
but the tree is just 8170 years old
so Carbon's atoms are still alive, right?
Does the problem ask me to find the ratio of atoms? Is it possible that some atoms got "diffused/fissioned"?
How do I know how many atoms ... got diffused... and into which elements
I'm reading blank with this problem, I don't get it at all...