In: Physics
why isnt carbon 14 dating reliable?c
Carbon 14 dating :
Radiocarbon dating is a method that provides objective age estimates for carbon based materials that originated from living organism. An age could be estimated by measuring the amount of carbon 14 present in the sample and comparing this against an internationally used standard .
Carbon 14 is an isotope of element carbon that is unstable and weejly radioactive. Carbon 14 is continually former in upper layer of atmosphere by the effect of cosmic ray neutrons on nitogen 14 atoms. By knowing how much carbon 14 left in the sample the age of the organism when it died can be known.
Carbon 14 is mostly used to date once living things ( organic). It can not be used directly to date rocks however it can potentially be used to put time constraints on some inorganic material such as diamond. Because of rapid rate of decay of carbon 14 , it can only give dates in thounsands - of- year range and not millions.it could not predict the correct age of Earth. So it is not so reliable.