How does “Carbon Dating” work?
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Most organic matter contains carbon. Atoms of carbon all have the same number of protons, but different isotopes of carbon have a different numbers of neutrons. Carbon-14, C-14, ¹⁴ C or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its half-life (time it takes to reduce its radioactivity by half) is about 5,730 years. This makes it possible to tell the age of substances that contain carbon as long as they are less than about 60,000 years old.
Scientists measure the amount of carbon-14 present in the sample and compare this against the known half-life of carbon-14. Carbon-14 is ordinarily at the same level among all living organisms, but that equilibrium ends once the organism dies. So by measuring the amount of carbon-14 remaining in a once-living organism, one can determine when it was still alive, and therefore the approximate age of the organic matter.
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