Principle of carbon 14 dating
In atmosphere, carbon 14 is mainly produced by nitrogen 14 being hit by a proton by cosmic rays (that is, a neutron). Because the size of cosmic rays is in thousands It stays the same for thousands of years, so the ratio of carbon 14 to carbon 12 in the atmosphere remains constant for a long time. Animals and plants can keep the ratio of carbon 14 to carbon 12 in the body the same as the ratio in the atmosphere through respiration, but when animals and plants die, the carbon 14 in the body will decay and decrease, while carbon 12 remains unchanged, so Over time, the ratio of carbon 14 to carbon 12 in animals and plants will continue to decrease. Then we can calculate how long animals and plants have been dead based on how much this ratio has decreased.
Commonly used methods in archaeology
In archaeology, especially for the dating of fossils, carbon 14 determination is a common method. For example, this time Sanxingdui unearthed a large number of ivory. Of course, the carbon-14 measurement method can be used to roughly determine how many years ago the ivory found in Sanxingdui this time. Of course, the age of the ivory discovered in Sanxingdui can also be determined by other methods
Limitations of the carbon-14 dating method
Of course, in archaeology, the carbon-14 measurement method also has errors, such as Affected by atmospheric changes, isotope fractionation, ocean effects, volcanoes, sample pollution and other factors. In addition, the half-life of carbon 14 is 5730 years, so if the cultural relics in archaeology are more than 50,000 years old, then the meaning of carbon 14 is very small, and then carbon 14 can no longer be used to determine the age.
Regarding the dating of carbon-14, what are your different understandings, please leave a message to discuss
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