Dear Student,

carbon dating is essentially the process where that provides us with the objective age estimates for carbon based materials that have originated from living organisms.

The age of a living organism can be determined by measuring the amount of carbon 14 present in a particular sample and comparing this with an internationally used reference standard.

For example, to determine the age of wooden archaeological artifacts or ancient human remains from the distant past.

Hello there,

Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon.

Basic Principles of Carbon Dating

Radiocarbon (carbon 14) is an isotope of the element carbon that is unstable and weakly radioactive. The stable isotopes are carbon 12 and carbon 13.

Carbon 14 is continually being formed in the upper atmosphere by the effect of cosmic ray neutrons on nitrogen 14 atoms. It is rapidly oxidized in air to form carbon dioxide and enters the global carbon cycle.

Plants and animals assimilate carbon 14 from carbon dioxide throughout their lifetimes. When they die, they stop exchanging carbon with the biosphere and their carbon 14 content then starts to decrease at a rate determined by the law of radioactive decay.

Radiocarbon dating is essentially a method designed to measure residual radioactivity.

Hope it helps :)