Question

1. Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,700 years. Scientists use this fact to determine the age of things made of organic material. Suppose the average page of a book containing approximately 0.5 mg of carbon-14 is put into a time capsule. How much carbon-14 will each page contain after each of the following numbers of years?

a. How many half-years is each quantity of years?


b. How much carbon-14 remains after the number of years shown to the left?

c. Challenge: see if you can create a table that uses 5700 as part of the exponent, and the actual number of years given above. Challenge function:

Answer 1

Answer: Since 5700 years is the "half-life" exactly 0.25 mg will remain.

Step-by-step explanation: Well, we know that half of it will change into another form in 5700 years, so if you start with .5 mg than in 5,700 years you would have half or .25 mg. 11,400 is another half life so half of .25 = .125 mg. 22,800 is two more half lives so half .125 twice.