Whether a lab using radiocarbon dating would overestimate or underestimate the age of a 10,000 year old artifact if 14 C was less abundant 10,000 years ago.

Question

Want to see the full answer?

Answer 1

Question

Chapter 30, Problem 14CQ

To determine

To explain: Whether a lab using radiocarbon dating would overestimate or underestimate the age of a 10,000 year old artifact if 14C was less abundant 10,000 years ago.

Expert Solution & Answer

Want to see the full answer?

Check out a sample textbook solution

See solution

Students have asked these similar questions

Radiocarbon dating assumes that the abundance of 14C in the environment has been constant. Suppose 14C was less abundant 10,000 years ago than it is today. Would this cause a lab using radiocarbon dating to overestimate or underestimate the age of a 10,000-yearold artifact? (In fact, the abundance of 14C in the environment does vary slightly with time. But the issue has been well studied, and the ages of artifacts are adjusted to compensate for this variation.)

Potassium (40K) decays to Argon (40Ar) with a half-life value of 1.3 billion years. 40K is the parent isotope and 40Ar is the daughter isotope. Laboratory analysis of a rock sample showed that there are 0.13ppm of 40K and an equal amount of 40Ar in the rock. (ppm: parts per million) Based on the laboratory results, ________________ half-live(s) have elapsed and the age of the rock is __________. Select from the following and explain. A. 0; 0 years B. 3; 4.5 billion years C. 1; 1.3 billion years D. 13; 6 billion years E. 13; 1.0 billion years

= U is for Uranium. Natural uranium consists of 235U (percent abundance P₁ = 0.7300%, A₁ = 3.12 x 10-¹7 [s-¹]) and 233U (percent abundance P₂ = 99.27%, 2₂ = 4.92 × 10-¹8 [s-¹]). Consider the time when Earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago. Setup the time dependence of percent abundance of the two uranium isotopes. Use №₁ and N₂ as current particle count of the isotopes (use №₁,0 and N₂,0 for the initial particle count back when Earth was formed) Then, Compute for the initial percent abundance of each uranium isotopes when the Earth was formed.