Question

Suppose that an Egyptian farmer claims to have discovered a linen burial cloth used during Egypt's Middle Kingdom some 4000 years ago. Careful analysis shows that the cloth contains 80% of the ^{14}{\rm C} that it is estimated to have originally contained. How old is the cloth?

Answer 1

the cloth is old by 1,844 years

Step-by-step explanation:

The computation is shown below:

The half-life of C^(14) is 5730 years

Now

`\lambda` =1.210 × 10^-4 years^(-1)

Now

`N(t) = Ce^(-\lambda* t)`

`0.8 * (N_0) = N_0 * e^(-\lambda * t)\\\\ln(0.8) = (-\lambda * t)\\\\t = (-(ln(0.8)))/(\lambda)`

`\lambda` = .000121,

so t = 1844 yrs

hence, the cloth is old by 1,844 years