How do those carbon dating machines work ,anyway?

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/nuclear...

Measuring the rate of decay of radioactive isotopes because the rate of decay is constant you can get a pretty accurate measure of the time scale. This is then checked against other factors to ensure it is correct.

it is probably 90% accurate 99% of the time. As with anything there will always be errors but the vast majority of measurements are pretty accurate.

Science can check this by sending samples of the same materials to different labs and checking that they all give similar results, if one lab says the sample is 100 years old and 3 labs say it is 100,000 years old they know there is a problem that needs to be resolved.

Carbon is only really used in anthropology since it only dates to about 60,000 years.

Carbon has two isotopes that are in equilibrium in the atmosphere. Living things that breath get the same relative amounts until they die. When they die, the one decays to the other at a known rate. You can figure out when the animal died base on that.

I think it has something to do with isotopes in a certain common element found in all things, and how it degrades over time and can be detected by checking the atomic weight of it or something like that.

http://www.ead.anl.gov/pub/doc/carbon14.pdf

so, first you have to know what carbon 14 is, and how it behaves.

yeah, test on Monday dude.

It involves a number of complexities beyond my brain capacity, but

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating

explains it better than I'll ever be able to.

Try posting this question in the science section.

SHut up FIREBALL i can RANdomly CAp toO.

they dont....WE BELIEVE GOD NOT MEN...TRINITY MADE MEN AND THE GALAXY!!!

wrong forum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating

http://www.essortment.com/hobbies/carbondatingac_s...

http://www.angelfire.com/mi/dinosaurs/carbondating...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZWiPBt1j7w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIW1nNK1OI4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZP7ABQW8OI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFABRB5h0Cc