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What amount of Carbon-14 is left after

25,000 years? (Remember, you start with
100% of Carbon-14.)

User Osahon
by
7.8k points

1 Answer

4 votes

Final answer:

Using the half-life of Carbon-14, which is 5,730 years, approximately 5.2% of Carbon-14 would remain after 25,000 years.

Step-by-step explanation:

The amount of Carbon-14 remaining after 25,000 years can be determined using the concept of half-lives. The half-life of Carbon-14 is 5,730 years. This means that after 5,730 years, half of the initial amount of Carbon-14 will have decayed. To find out how much Carbon-14 is left after 25,000 years, we need to calculate how many half-lives have passed in that time.



25,000 years ÷ 5,730 years per half-life = approximately 4.36 half-lives. After each half-life, the amount of Carbon-14 is halved. So, after the first half-life, 50% remains, after the second half-life, 25% remains, and so on. To calculate the percentage remaining after 4.36 half-lives, we can use the formula:



Remaining percentage = 100% × (1/2)^(number of half-lives)



Remaining percentage = 100% × (1/2)^4.36 ≈ 100% × 0.052 ≈ 5.2%



Therefore, approximately 5.2% of the original amount of Carbon-14 would remain after 25,000 years.

User KirkoR
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