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How to find decay rate?
Im just gonna summarize the question. It says you wer at an extinct volcano. you dig a core sample through a glacier. more than 132 meters deep. in the core sample are bugs and crap. Carbon samples were found. The samples of carbon have an average decay rate of 1107 decays per day. A recent sample or the similar material decays at 20130 decays per day. How long ago did the glacier being to form?
HELP MEEE
2 Answers
- Mountainboy19682Lv 69 years agoFavorite Answer
In the absence of detailed information, I am assuming that the carbon samples from the glacier and the carbon samples of recent material contain precisely the same mass of carbon.
Dividing 1107 by 20,130 gives 0.054992548
This is equivalent to 0.5 to the power of 4.185 (0.5^4.185)
Thus there are 4.185 half life periods.
The half life of carbon 14 is 5,730 years.
Thus a crude estimate is 23,980 years ( 5,730 x 4.185)
.
This estimate needs to be refined to allow for the fact that current carbon 14 levels are slightly elevated (by about 8%) over long term levels due to atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the sixties. Also long term levels have fluctuated and a further correction needs to be applied. Uncertainty in the result needs to allow for sampling and testing inaccuracies.
Source(s): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon-14
