Question on carbon-dating - 'explain' questions

Question:

Recently, some old human skulls have been found in Mexico. Their age has established using radiocarbon, Carbon-14 dating.

When examining a small sample of one of these old skulls, scientists found that 2.3x10^-11% of the carbon was Carbon-14, whereas in recent skulls this proportion is 1x10^-10%.

(b) ii) Give one reason why the value you calculated for the age of the skull may be inaccurate.

(ii) Recent bones are dated using the decay of Pb-210, which has a half-life of 21 years. Explain why Pb-210 is more suitable than Carbon-14 for dating recent bones.

I am really bad at these types of questions... could someone help? :frown:

Reply 1

OP

Anyone? Please?

OP

hellllpppp! :frown:

Carbon-14 dating depends quite a lot on the carbon content of the atmosphere at that time. The object you have dated could have been around in a time when the atmospheric C14 was at a peak this would result in it containing a lot more C14

Dating something using a shorter half life gives you a better time resolution, hence for "younger" bones you can more accurately pin point how old they are.

Reply 4

Je3y

OP

4

Olibert

Carbon-14 dating depends quite a lot on the carbon content of the atmosphere at that time. The object you have dated could have been around in a time when the atmospheric C14 was at a peak this would result in it containing a lot more C14

Dating something using a shorter half life gives you a better time resolution, hence for "younger" bones you can more accurately pin point how old they are.

Oh thanks for the reply.

What do you mean by 'better time resolution'? Do you mean like because it has a smaller half-life, you can gain a more accurate calculation for the age of more recent bones... or something along those lines? (I'm finding it hard to word)

Question on carbon-dating - 'explain' questions

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