How can radioactivity determine the age of something?

ajdale

It's called radio carbon dating. It works by measuring the amount of carbon 14 in an object. Carbon 14 is a radionactive isotope of carbon and because they know the rate at which the radioactivity decays, they can estimate the age of the object. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/archaeology/carbondating_1.shtml Jan 31 04, 8:10 AM

peasypod

Correct adjale. A final phrase might be "...by the relative abundances of the isotopes." Rocks can also be radiometrically dated by other radioactive elements with longer half lives. Feb 01 04, 2:52 AM

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