How does “Carbon Dating” work?
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Imagine there’s a water leak at an abandoned house. It leaks water at a known pace, so if we go in the house an measure the amount of water, we can have an idea of how long it’s been leaking.
With living organisms, after they die, they begin to change. In particular for carbon dating, we’re interested in carbon atoms that contain 6 protons and 8 neutrons (=14), and we know how fast they’ll change or “decay”, which basically means they transform into something else. When we find a dead thing, we can measure the amount of carbon 14 left, and have an idea of how long it’s been changing.
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