Why is C-14 dating NOT useful in determining the age of a metal artifact?
Answer:
Because one, it doesn't have very much carbon in it, and two, even if it does have carbon the carbon might be a lot older than the object itself. Carbon-14 dating is only useful for dating the remains of living organisms or things that were made out of living organisms (such as a wooden spear or a bone fishhook).
How would the metal absorb the carbon?
because it dedects carbon 14 which is in living things and decays over time after the living thing dies. metal wasnt living so it is not in there.
C-14 is an naturally occurring form of Carbon. Carbon is found in living organisms, typically not in metals. When something is C-14 dated the amount of C-14 is actually measured and by using how much has decayed away, or turned back into normal Carbon, you can determine the age of the item.
Since metal objects would not have this naturally occurring C-14 in them, there would be no way to tell how much has decayed.
Dating with C-14 was conceived by Willard Libby, It is based on the idea that natural carbon contains a small percentage of C-14 with a known half-life of 5.73 x 103 years. The activity of C-14 in the air and in living matter has been found to be relatively constant at 14 disintegrations per minute per gram of carbon. Although C-14 in constantly decaying through beta decay, it is also being replenished by the production of C-14 through the interaction of cosmic radiation witn N-14. Living tissue is constantly replenishing its C-14 as long as it is alive. When the organism dies,, this process tops and the C-14 continues to decay and decrease. The ratio of the activity of the C-14 in the dead tissue is compared to the activity of the C-14 when it is alive (14 dpm) and the elapsed time is then calculated.
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