Question

QUESTION 2 Radiocarbon dating is used to determine the age of organic materials. Living objects have a consistent amount of carbon-14 in their systems due to the fact that they are constantly incorporating new carbon into their systems and C-14 is being constantly generated by our atmosphere. When an organism dies, it stops incorporating C-14 into its system and the C-14 that was present undergoes a first order kinetic decay. The half life of carbon 14 is 57 15 years How old is an artifact that has only 50.5% of the C-14 that a living organism has? Give the answer in years to 2 significant figures QUESTION 3

Answer 1

Solution We know that fore first order reaction tez 0.623 Grinen ty 2 5715 years (half life of (-14) k = 0.693 5715 = 1.21 X10 year! Also for first orden reaction K = 3.302 long lason)

Ko 2.303 log ( 100 Trium, -595% = 59.57 Ľē 59.5 »t-2.303 121x10 4 yean" 01595) = 0.4292x104 year . 20.43 104 year It = 4300 year I Ansues Cupto a significant figure /