Final answer:
A skeleton that has lost half of its C-14 content is approximately 5,730 years old, as this is the half-life of carbon-14 used in radioactive dating.
Step-by-step explanation:
The age of a skeleton that has lost half of its carbon-14 (C-14) content would be equal to one half-life of the carbon-14 isotope. Given that the half-life of C-14 is 5,730 years, the skeleton would be 5,730 years old. This is a classic example of radioactive dating, a method used to determine the age of organic material based on the decay rate of isotopes like carbon-14. When an organism dies, it stops absorbing C-14, and the existing isotope begins to decay into nitrogen (14N). Thus, by measuring the remaining amount of C-14 in the skeleton, we can estimate how long it has been since the organism died.