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| Carbon dating |
Carbon dating and radiocarbon dating:
Carbon dating and radiocarbon dating are essentially the same thing. Both terms refer to the process of using the concentration of carbon-14, a radioactive isotope of carbon, to determine the age of organic materials. The term "carbon dating" is often used informally to refer to radiocarbon dating, but this is technically incorrect.
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| Radiocarbon dating |
Radiocarbon dating was developed in the late 1940s, and it has revolutionized the field of archaeology and anthropology. It allows scientists to determine the age of organic materials with a high degree of accuracy, and it has been used to date artifacts and remains from many different cultures around the world. The basic principle behind radiocarbon dating is that carbon-14 is constantly being created in the Earth's atmosphere through the interaction of cosmic rays with nitrogen atoms. When an organism dies, it stops taking in carbon-14, and the carbon-14 it contains begins to decay at a predictable rate. By measuring the concentration of carbon-14 in a sample and comparing it to the known rate of decay, scientists can determine the age of the sample.
So to summarize, carbon dating and radiocarbon dating are the same thing, and both terms refer to the process of using the concentration of carbon-14 to determine the age of organic materials.
