A fossil was analyzed as well as determined to have a carbon-14 level that is 80.0 % that of living organisms. How old is the fossil?
All living things contain carbon. Most of this carbon is stable carbon-12. Though, a small percentage will be carbon-14 a radioactive isotope of carbon that decays with time. As living things eat and breathe carbon is constantly recycled as well as therefore the percentage of carbon-14 remains constant. It's not until death that the percentage of carbon-14 will begin to diminish from decay. For the reason that radioactive decay is a first-order process the integrated rate law for a first-order reaction can be rewritten as
Fraction Remaining= 0.5^(t/t1/2)
Explain where t is the time elapsed and t 1/2 is the half-life. The half-life of C-14 is 5730 years.