Answered: Scientists can determine the age of…

Chemistry by OpenStax (2015-05-04)

1st Edition

ISBN:9781938168390

Author:Klaus Theopold, Richard H Langley, Paul Flowers, William R. Robinson, Mark Blaser

Publisher:Klaus Theopold, Richard H Langley, Paul Flowers, William R. Robinson, Mark Blaser

Chapter12: Kinetics

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 46E: Fluorine-18 is a radioactive isotope that decays by positron emission to form oxygen-18 with a...

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Scientists can determine the age of ancient objects by the method of radiocarbon dating. The bombardment of the upper atmosphere by cosmic rays converts nitrogen to a radioactive isotope of carbon, ¹⁴C, with a half-life of about 5,730 years. Vegetation absorbs carbon dioxide through the atmosphere, and animal life assimilates ¹⁴C through food chains. When a plant or animal dies, it stops replacing its carbon, and the amount of ¹⁴C present begins to decrease through radioactive decay. Therefore, the level of radioactivity must also decay exponentially.

a) Dinosaur fossils are too old to be reliably dated using carbon-14. Suppose we had a 67 million year old dinosaur fossil. What percent of the living dinosaur's ¹⁴C would be remaining today? (Round your answer to five decimal places.)

b) Suppose the minimum detectable amount is 0.7%. What is the maximum age (in years) of a fossil that we could date using ¹⁴C? (Round your answer to the nearest year.)

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