Question

To determine how old Neandertal fossils are, researchers must use radiometric dating. They use an isotope with a half-life of 12,000 years, and find that fossils from one Neandertal have 1/256th (=1/28) of the isotope found in currently living organisms. How old would you predict these Neandertal fossils to be?

Answer 1

Using an isotope with a half-life of 12,000 years and calculating that the fossils have only 1/256th of the original isotopic amount, we can determine that the Neandertal fossils have undergone 8 half-lives, which equates to an age of 96,000 years.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine the age of the Neandertal fossils, researchers use radiometric dating techniques involving isotopes with known half-lives. In this case, the researchers are using an isotope with a half-life of 12,000 years. Since the fossils have 1/256th (which is 1/28) of the original isotopic concentration, this indicates that the fossils have undergone 8 half-lives. The age of the fossils can be calculated as follows:

• Half-life of the isotope = 12,000 years
• Number of half-lives (n) = 8
• Total age = Half-life × Number of half-lives (n)
• Total age = 12,000 years × 8 = 96,000 years

Therefore, we can predict that these Neandertal fossils are 96,000 years old.

Answer 2

96000YEARS

Step-by-step explanation:

Given that 1/28 = 8 half lives

this means that 8 half lives ,

and the given fossil should have 1/28 of the isotope

8 half lives = 1200 x 8

= 96000years

therefore the predicted Neandertal fossils is 96000years