Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. It's presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method to date archaeological, geological, and hydrogeological samples.
Think of Carbon-14 as a ticking time bomb within an artifact. Just like how we can estimate when a bomb was set based on its countdown, scientists can estimate when an organism died by measuring how much Carbon-14 remains in its remains.
Isotope: An isotope refers to different forms of a single element that have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons.
Radioactive Decay: This term refers to the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. In this case, Carbon-14 decays over time.
Radiocarbon Dating: This is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon (Carbon-14), a radioactive isotope of carbon.
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