Discussion
The technique of radiocarbon dating has been used to estimate the age of fossilized life forms. What is the approximate half-life of carbon-14 ?
Answer: B
The half-life of carbon-14 is about 5,500 years.
The accepted value is 5,730 years (Libby's original figure was 5,568), and 5,500 is the option closest to it. After each half-life, half the carbon-14 in a dead organism has decayed to nitrogen-14, so comparing the remaining 14C with that of living matter gives the time since death; the method is useful back to about 50,000 years.
550 years is ten times too short, while 55,000 and 5,50,000 (550,000) years are ten and a hundred times too long; after 55,000 years almost no carbon-14 would be left to measure.
Post your comment
Please log in or register to post a comment.
Examination Categories
- SSC Exams
- Banking Exams
- Teaching Exams
- Civil Services Exams
- Railways Exams
- Engineering Recruitment Exams
- Defence Exams
- State Government Exams
- Police Exams
- Insurance Exams
- Nursing Exams
- Other Government Exams
- NRA CET
- PG Entrance Exams
- Campus Placement
- MBA Entrance Exams
- CUET and UG Entrance
- Judiciary Exams
- Regulatory Body Exams
- Software Development