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A wooden artifact from an ancient tomb contains 65% of the carbon-14 that is present in living trees. How long ago was the artifact made? (The half-life of carbon-14 is 5730 years.

User MarkA
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It is not possible to determine the exact age of the artifact based on the information provided. Carbon-14 dating is a technique used to determine the age of materials that contain carbon. This technique is based on the fact that carbon-14, a radioactive isotope of carbon, undergoes beta decay with a half-life of 5730 years. When an organism dies, it stops taking in carbon-14, and the carbon-14 in its tissues begins to decay. By measuring the amount of carbon-14 remaining in a sample, we can determine how long ago the organism died.

However, the age of a sample can only be determined if we know the amount of carbon-14 that was present in the sample when it was alive. In the case of the wooden artifact, we do not know how much carbon-14 was present in the wood when it was alive, so we cannot determine its age using carbon-14 dating
User Tamilmaran
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