Hello student,

Carbon dating is basically used to determine age of any ancient artifact or material. It is generally used by archeologist.  We can count the age by checking the amount of C14 present which starts decaying when the organism or any such thing dies. It is also known as Radiocarbon dating. So  in short the amount of C14 acculumated by organic species is counted after it decays.

Thanks

Hello student,

Carbon-14 dating , also called radiocarbon dating is a method of age determination that depends upon the decay to nitrogen of radiocarbon (carbon-14).

Radiocarbon decays slowly in a living organism, and the amount lost is continually replenished as long as the organism takes in air or food. Once the organism dies, however, it ceases to absorb carbon-14, so that the amount of the radiocarbon in its tissues steadily decreases. Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,730 ± 40 years.

Because carbon-14 decays at this constant rate, an estimate of the date at which an organism died can be made by measuring the amount of its residual radiocarbon.

Hope it helps you.