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does knowing the half-life of carbon 14 help scientists determine the absolute or relative age of a rock?

User Hosseio
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Answer: Yes, knowing the half-life of carbon-14 helps scientists determine the absolute age of a rock. Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,730 years.

Explanation: After an organism dies, it stops absorbing new carbon-14 from the environment, and the isotope begins to decay at an exponential rate.

The amount of carbon-14 remaining in a fossil organism indicates the time elapsed since death, giving a measure of absolute age.

Scientists can use carbon-14 dating to find the exact age of a rock sample. This type of dating is called radiometric dating. Scientists can determine how long ago an organism died by measuring how much carbon-14 is left relative to the carbon-12. Carbon dating can only be used to date things made from atmospheric carbon dioxide in the last 50,000 years or so

User Sean Lynch
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