Why measure the carbon-14 works? Are the carbons atoms create some manner in the life of the organism now dead and fossilized? How do we know that the atoms weren’t there before?
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The idea behind carbon dating (measuring carbon 14 isotopes) goes on the line that when a carbon based life form is alive, it’s constantly consuming small doses of carbon-14 in amongst all the regular carbon-12, so the “average” baseline of carbon-14 is about steady. Once something dies, it stops taking in carbon at all, so the level of carbon-14 starts to drop as it decays to non radioactive atoms. Since carbon-14 decays at a known rate, an extrapolation can be done, basically working backward from the amount there right now to what starting average baseline is, giving an estimate of age. It’s definitely not 100 percent though, as things like air pollution, both man made and from things like volcanic eruptions, can interfere with the process.
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