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
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I assume you’re asking “how do we know carbon dating is accurate, when nobody has been around long enough to have measured the time it takes carbon to decay x amount?” Something to note, carbon dating only really works on previously-living organisms, and only within a window of ~5,730 – ~50,000 years of age. This is because an organism must have been alive to absorb carbon in the first place.
The way we know it’s accurate is, well, we don’t. Carbon dating is based on the half-life of carbon, which is an estimate based on carbon levels taken from organisms that had just died, and then a handful of years later. This difference was used to form an experimental curve, extrapolated to cover a longer amount of time. The results were then tested and refined by measuring the levels of radioactive carbon in samples of organic material from archeological sites of known ages. The levels of radioactive material in a house built in 1200 AD could be determined and compared to the extrapolated experimental curve. Again, this is still an estimate.
EDIT: I want to add that carbon dating can only be somewhat accurate under the assumption that the levels of carbon in the atmosphere have remained constant from the time we’re dating an object.
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