Like by looking at a certain artefact scientists can determine that it is from 2100 years ago, how are they so sure of the accuracy.
In: Chemistry
Just to clear things up… While alive, plants and animals will have the same ratio of C-12 and C-14 as the atmosphere. Plants are getting their carbon from Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere, and animals are (ultimately) getting their carbon from plants.
Once a plant or animal dies, it is no longer getting any new carbon. The C-12 is stable, and doesn’t change. The C-14, though, is unstable, and slowly changes into C-12 (radioactive decay). Radio carbon dating doesn’t just look at how much C-14 is in a sample, it looks at how much C-14 is in a sample compared to how much C-12 is in the sample. The older the sample is, the less C-14 will be in it relative to the amount of C-12.
One way the dating method has been confirmed reliable (within error margins), and calibrated was to test samples of known age. (Dendrochronology can be used to date wood back 10,000+ years).
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