Question

Situation:

Find the age of the skull to the nearest year,
A hiker in Africa discovers a skull that
contains 54% of its original amount of C-
14.
Enter the correct answer.
DONE
N- Noe
-kt
No - inital amount of C-14 (at time
t-0)
N-amount of C-14 at timet
k - 0.0001
t-time, in years

Answer 1

The guy on top is correct so thank u so much!! the answer is 6162

Explanation:

I did the test

Answer 2

t = 6162 years

Explanation:

Apparently you are asked to use the constant k = 0.0001 instead of the most common 0.00012. We'll answer the problem using such number you typed, but make sure that there is no omission in your typing.

The equation to use is that for carbon decay:

`N(t)=N_0\,e^(-0.0001\,\,t)`

If the skull contains 54% of its original amount of C14, then that means that :

`N(t)=0.54 \,\,N_0`

we use this to solve for the time (t) in our equation:

`0.54\,\,N_0=N_0\,e^(-0.0001\,\,t)\\(0.54\,\,N_0)/(N_0)=e^(-0.0001\,\,t)\\0.54=e^(-0.0001\,\,t)\\ln(0.54)=-0.0001\,\,t\\t=(ln(0.54))/(-0.0001) \\t=6161.86\,\,years`

which rounded to the nearest year as requested gives :

t = 6162 years