Because carbon-14 decays at this constant rate, an estimate of the date at which an organism died can be made by measuring the amount of its residual radiocarbon.
How does carbon dating determine the age of fossils?
The half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730 years, so carbon dating is only relevant for dating fossils less than 60,000 years old. Carbon dating uses the decay of carbon-14 to estimate the age of organic materials, such as wood and leather.
Why carbon-14 dating cant be used to determine age of fossils when it is 70 years old?
Because of the short length of the carbon-14 half-life, carbon dating is only accurate for items that are thousands to tens of thousands of years old. Most rocks of interest are much older than this. Geologists must therefore use elements with longer half-lives.
What type of fossils would carbon-14 be useful for dating?
Carbon-14 dating has been used successfully on the Dead Sea Scrolls, Minoan ruins and tombs of the pharohs among other things. What is Carbon-14? Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope of carbon. Its has a half-life of about 5,730 years.