Carbon dating activity using graph to guess ages.

Activity with questions on carbon dating. use the graph to guess the ages of several items.

1. Percentage of Carbon 14 (%) 100 50 25 75 Carbon 14 Half life

2. Now use the graph you have to calculate the half life of the following items……

3. The percentage of carbon-14 found in this wooden bow: 88% What is the age of the bow?

4. The percentage of carbon-14 found in this wooden bow: 11% What is the age of the skull?

5. The percentage of carbon-14 found in this wooden bow: 93% What is the age of the tree?

6. The percentage of carbon-14 found in this dinosaur fossil: % What does it mean if the percentage is zero? What problems does this provide for carbon dating?

7. We cannot use carbon-14 to check the age of this rock: Why? What do we use?

8. Using previous answers, calculate a VERY ROUGH ESTIMATE of the age of this dinosaur fossil: The age of this rock using uranium dating was found to be: 10My