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Carbon-14 is in all living things and decays after it dies. It has a long half life (the time it takes for half a sample to decay into another element) and gives a good estimate as to how old something is.

Carbon dating is only effective up to an approximate age of 70,000 years, and is only useful in dating organic matter. Since the vast majority of fossils are much older than this, carbon dating is not particularly useful in dating fossils, but is of great use in Archaeology.

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13y ago
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4mo ago

Scientists use Carbon-14 dating to determine the age of organic materials by measuring the amount of Carbon-14 remaining in a sample. Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope with a known half-life, so by comparing the ratio of Carbon-14 to stable Carbon-12 in a sample, scientists can calculate its age. This method is effective for dating relatively young fossils up to around 60,000 years old.

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12y ago

The C-14 is carbon 14 it is a certain type carbon. Carbon 14 has a half life of 5,730 years and by checking the amount of the carbon 14 is in a fossil the can see how old it is. After 11,460 years c-14 dating is useless.

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7y ago

The half life of C 14 is 5730 years. After a few half lives its useless.

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Q: How do scientists use Carbon-14 to date fossils?
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What are facts about paleontology?

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Related questions

What do scientists use to determine a fossil's relative age?

Carbon14 dating (isotopic dating)


What evidence do scientists use to study the ancient dinosaur?

Scientists use mainly fossils.


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What do scientists use the fossil record for?

Recording fossils No.


What geologists able to tell archaeologist about fossils?

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What are geologists able to tell archaeologists about fossils?

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What two things must scientist measure to find the absolute age of a rock?

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What two things must scientist measure to find the absolute ages of rocks?

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What are two common tools that scientists use when cleaning fossils?

bacon


How do archaeologists date fossils?

Scientists take samples of the carbon remaining in the fossil. They then use a form of carbon dating to determine its age. (it doesn't have to be a fossil, it could be any ancient remain, even a skull from fifty years ago, or a plate from the 1700's. Just wanted to clarify that a little bit more!)


Which method dating would you use with frozen fossils?

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What are the four step scientists use to study fossils?

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