If 100.0 g of carbon-14 decays until only 25.0 g of carbon is left after 11,460 y, what is the half-life of carbon-14?
n artifact was found and tested for its carbon-14 content. If 83% of the original carbon-14 was still present, what is its probable age (to the nearest 100 years)? (Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,730 years.)
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Same song.
To find the half-life of carbon-14, we need to first understand the concept of half-life. The half-life is the amount of time it takes for a substance to decay or reduce to half of its original amount.
In this case, we know that the original amount of carbon-14 is 100.0 grams and the final amount is 25.0 grams. The difference between the original amount and the final amount is 100.0 g - 25.0 g = 75.0 g.
Now, let's find out how many half-lives occurred during this decay process. Each half-life reduces the amount of carbon-14 by half.
If we start with 100.0 grams, after the first half-life, we would have 100.0 g / 2 = 50.0 grams.
After the second half-life, we would have 50.0 g / 2 = 25.0 grams. This matches the final amount we have, so it took two half-lives for the decay to occur.
Now, we can determine the duration of each half-life. The total time that passed is given as 11,460 years, and since there were two half-lives, we divide the total time by the number of half-lives:
11,460 y / 2 = 5,730 years.
Therefore, the half-life of carbon-14 is approximately 5,730 years.