Question

A wooden artifact is found in an ancient tomb. Its carbon-14 14 6 C activity is measured to be 55.0% of that in a fresh sample of wood from the same region. Assuming the same amount of 14C was initially present in the artifact as is now contained in the fresh sample, determine the age of the artifact (in years)

Answer 1

Answer:

$t = 4.942\times10^{3}$

Explanation:

we know that

$t =-\frac{ln\frac{R}{R_0} }{\lambda}$

the symbols have their usual meaning

Also,

$t=-T_{1/2}\frac{ln\frac{R}{R_0} }{ln2}$

now plugging the values we get

$t=-5730\frac{ln(0.55) }{ln(2)}$

$t = 4.942\times10^{3}$  years