Define radioactive carbon dating

It cannot be used to date volcanic rocks, for example.The rate of decay of N in 5,730 years (plus or minus 40 years).They need to be active long enough to treat the condition, but they should also have a short enough half-life so that they don’t injure healthy cells and organs.Radioactive dating is helpful for figuring out the age of ancient things.This has to do with figuring out the age of ancient things.If you could watch a single atom of a radioactive isotope, U-238, for example, you wouldn’t be able to predict when that particular atom might decay.

It takes a certain amount of time for half the atoms in a sample to decay.

Scientists know the half-life of C-14 (5,730 years), so they can figure out how long ago the organism died.

Carbon-14 dating can only be used to determine the age of something that was once alive.

So, we have a “clock” which starts ticking the moment something dies.

Obviously, this works only for things which were once living.