Once a living thing dies, the carbon dating process begins. As long as an organism is alive it will continue to take in 14C or radio carbon; however, when it dies, it will stop. Since 14C is radioactive (decays into 14N), the amount of 14C in a dead organism gets less and less over time. Therefore, part of the dating process involves measuring the amount of 14C that remains after some has decayed. Scientists now use a device called AMS (don't know what it stands for) to figure out the ratio of 14C to 12C, which increases the "assumed" accuracy to about 80,000 years. In order to actually do the dating, other things need to be known like:
- How fast does 14C decay?
- What was the starting amount of 14C in the creature when it died?
The decay …show more content…
If scientists know the original amount of 14C in a creature when it died, they can measure the current amount and then calculate how many half-lives have passed. There is MUCH more, but it's freaking boring, so I think you get the jist of it.
Anywhoo, Dr. Willard Libby, the founder of the carbon-14 dating method, assumed the ratio to be constant. His reasoning was based on his belief in evolution, which "assumes" the earth MUST be billions of years old. Assumptions in the scientific community are extremely bad because personal opinion should never get in the way of factual research. So, if the starting assumption is false, all the calculations based on that assumption might very well be correct but STILL give a wrong conclusion.
In Dr. Libby’s original work, he noted that the atmosphere did not appear to be in equilibrium which bothered him since he thought the world was billions of years old and enough time had passed to achieve this equilibrium. Dr. Libby’s calculations showed that if the earth started with NO 14C in the atmosphere, it would take up to 30,000 years to build up to a steady state
- How fast does 14C decay?
- What was the starting amount of 14C in the creature when it died?
The decay …show more content…
If scientists know the original amount of 14C in a creature when it died, they can measure the current amount and then calculate how many half-lives have passed. There is MUCH more, but it's freaking boring, so I think you get the jist of it.
Anywhoo, Dr. Willard Libby, the founder of the carbon-14 dating method, assumed the ratio to be constant. His reasoning was based on his belief in evolution, which "assumes" the earth MUST be billions of years old. Assumptions in the scientific community are extremely bad because personal opinion should never get in the way of factual research. So, if the starting assumption is false, all the calculations based on that assumption might very well be correct but STILL give a wrong conclusion.
In Dr. Libby’s original work, he noted that the atmosphere did not appear to be in equilibrium which bothered him since he thought the world was billions of years old and enough time had passed to achieve this equilibrium. Dr. Libby’s calculations showed that if the earth started with NO 14C in the atmosphere, it would take up to 30,000 years to build up to a steady state