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The radioactive element carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,750 years. The percentage of carbon-14 present in the remains of plants and animals can be used to determine age. How old is a skeleton that has lost half of its carbon-14 content?

User Astery
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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.

User Erwin Brandstetter
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