Nuclear physics

# Radioactive carbon dating formula and method

Any of several methods for determining the age of archaeological and fossil remains rocks, etc, by measuring some property of the organic or inorganic matter that changes with time. This property may be dependent on some aspect of nuclear decay, such as the decay of the radiocarbon or the uranium series, thermoluminescence, or electron spin resonance. These aspects are studied by radiometric dating techniques. The property may alternatively be dependent on a chemical change with a time-dependent rate constant, such as amino acid racemization.

### How does radioactive carbon dating work?

#### Carbon 14 dating

Radiocarbon dating (or carbon -14 dating) is a method for determining the age of objects up to 35000 years old containing matter that was once living, such as wood. Atmospheric carbon consists mainly of the stable isotope C-12 and a small but constant proportion of C-14, a radionuclide of half-life 5730 years resulting from the bombardment of atmospheric nitrogen by neutrons produced by the action of Cosmic rays.
All living organisms absorb carbon from atmospheric CO2, but after death, absorption ceases and the once constant ratio C-14/C-12 decreases due to the decay of C-14.
${ 14 }_{ C }\quad \longrightarrow { 14 }_{ N }\quad +e+\xrightarrow { v }$