Question

A human piece of pottery is dated at 42,250 years old by using carbon-14. how many half lives have passed since the pottery was made

Answer 1

42,250 / 5,700 = 7.412

Answer 2

Total 7.37 half lives have been estimated to pass since the time pottery was made, 42250 years ago.

The carbon-14 is a radioactive form of carbon which is helpful in computing the age of ancient materials. Carbon-14 decays to half of its content in 5730 years.

This is called half life of radioactive carbon which is 5730 years. The number of half lives is same as the remainder obtained by the division of age of pottery and half life of carbon.