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Methods

The scientist use radioactive decay and carbon-14 dating to determine the age of remains found from the past. Radioactive decay occurs as unstable atoms decay through alpha or beta decay, changing into other elements over time. Carbon-14 dating can determine the age of bones, wood, and plant fibers from the relatively recent past, as the amount of carbon-14 in remains reduces by half every 5730 years since the death of the living being.

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49 views1 page

Methods

The scientist use radioactive decay and carbon-14 dating to determine the age of remains found from the past. Radioactive decay occurs as unstable atoms decay through alpha or beta decay, changing into other elements over time. Carbon-14 dating can determine the age of bones, wood, and plant fibers from the relatively recent past, as the amount of carbon-14 in remains reduces by half every 5730 years since the death of the living being.

Uploaded by

nicolas
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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¿WHAT ARE THE METHODS THAT THE SCIENTIST

USE TO DETERMINE DE AGE OF REMAINS FOUND


FORM THE PAST?
METHODS:

. Radioactive decay: it gives when certain atoms are unstable, and


their nucleus separate in parts changing in other elements.
Some of these radioactive elements become to themselves when
emitting a particle of high energy, this process is called “alpha decay”.
Other radioactive elements decay when a neutron breaks, producing a
proton and an electron, to this process is called to him “beta decay ".

.Carbon14
Also the age of the elements can be determined by means of
carbon14. It is used to determine the age of some things: bones,
wood, vegetal fibers, that were
created in a relatively recent past by
human activities. The Carbon 14 is
radioactive, being his “period” of 5730
years (that is, at the 5730 years of the
death of an alive being, the amount of
C14 in his fossil rest is reduced to half).

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