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Radiocarbon Dating or C14 This session will be looking at Radiocarbon DATING. It’s not as difficult as it sounds. The best way I remember Radiocarbon dating is all living things absorb several types of carbon isotope from the atmosphere. Okay that’s the easy part dealt with now for a bit more in depth study. Around one per cent of carbon is an unstable isotope known as carbon 14 (C14) this decays at a known rate. The remaining C14 along with amounts of other carbon isotopes in organic samples its possible to work out how much C14 has decayed. For example how long it has been since decay began like plants or creatures was alive. I hope you understand this so far. The down side to C14 are the dates are never exact. Even after calibration there is a margin of error that is calculated statistically. What this means that there is sixty eight percent chance or level of confidence known short as LOC that the real date is within the range indicated and a ninety five per cent LOC that used to date organic materials including bone, shell and plants remains. Although, it does not work on bone it would work best on charred bone. Lets now turn our attention to C14 dates easy when you know how to work them out really it is! The lower case letters are often, but not always used to show that dates are uncelebrated, whereas capitals should mean they have been calibrated. Cal is added to a calibrated date mainly to avoid confusion. The Calendar dates are expressed as ad or bc the uncelebrated BC, AD Cal and so one C14 dates are expressed as BP or Cal BP all BP means is Before Present. This I hope has shown you the very basic outline about C14 there is a lot more to it than this and I suggest that you will need to look at the following links provided. This sites is well worth looking at as its provides. When I looked at this site it provided what look to be a good book but that's up to you if you buy it. Also a good search box.
Loads of helpful information on the subject great for anyone who is studying C14 and how this works. From the complex methods to other web sites links |
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