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Radiometric Dating Research Paper

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Radiometric dating is when the amount of Carbon-14 is analyzed in a specimen that was once living compared to the amount of Carbon-14 in a sample that is currently living. The important information that radiometric dating is based on is that Carbon-14 has been produced at a constant rate in the upper atmosphere for all of time. Furthermore, the half-life of Carbon-14 is 5,730 years and it will never change. When an element has an atomic number greater than 82, it is radioactive. When the nucleus of an elements does not have an even number of protons and neutrons, with the exception of hydrogen and 5 others, the element is radioactive. Also, when the nucleus has either too many or too few nucleons in one or more shells, the element is radioactive. …show more content…
It measures how much the sample has loss of the radiation, Carbon-14, that has built up over the sample’s lifetime and compares it to a sample that is currently alive. The amount of Carbon-14 in an artifact is related to its age by how much Carbon-14 it has in its build-up. Organisms collect Carbon-14 as they live and when they die, the gathering of Carbon-14 is stopped. Archeologists can also estimate the age of an organism by the Carbon-14’s half life of 5,730 years, so if it has about half of the amount of Carbon-14 as the living things around it, then the archeologist can state the organism is 5,730 years old. In conclusion, by figuring out the exact amount of Carbon-14 in a sample, the amount can show an extremely close number of the sample’s creation date. Carbon-14 is produce when subatomic particles from the sun smash into the Nitrogen-14 from the Earth’s uppermost atmosphere and creates Carbon-14. When the subatomic particle smashes into the Nitrogen-14, the Nitrogen-14 loses a proton and is replaced with a neutron, creating Carbon-14, and leaves a hydrogen nucleus. Carbon-14 exists naturally in the uppermost atmosphere and then travels down onto the Earth and gets absorbed by living things through sunlight and the

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