Question

A certain fossil of a beetle contains 15% as much carbon as a living beetle. The age of the fossil can be found using carbon dating.

Calculate the age of this fossil given that the half life of carbon-14 is 5715 years.

Answer 1

The amount of carbon-14 in the fossil is 15% of the amount of carbon-14 in a living beetle.

This means that the amount of carbon-14 in the fossil is 0.15 * the amount of carbon-14 in a living beetle.

The age of the fossil can be found by dividing the half-life of carbon-14 by the logarithm of the ratio of the amount of carbon-14 in the fossil to the amount of carbon-14 in a living beetle.

This means that the age of the fossil is 5715 years / log(0.15).

The age of the fossil is approximately 5715 years / -1.1761.

Therefore, the age of this fossil is approximately <<4895.4683=4895>>4895 years.