Question

If I tell you that the half life of 14C is 5730 and that a bone found in cave has only ¼ of the original 14C remaining, how old is the bone?

Answer 1

The bone is 11,460 years old, calculated using the half-life of carbon-14 and the fact that only a quarter of the original carbon-14 remains.

Step-by-step explanation:

If a bone found in a cave has only ¼ of the original carbon-14 (14C) remaining, we must calculate the age of the bone using the half-life of 14C, which is 5730 years. Knowing that each half-life represents a period in which half of the original 14C would decay, we can determine that two half-lives have passed to reach a quarter of the original 14C (since ½ × ½ = ¼). Therefore, the age of the bone is 2 × 5730 years, which equals 11,460 years.