I thought I remembered from school that all elements are isotopes. Meh, the things that happen when you get old😢
@Trumpstinks11 ай бұрын
I always wondered why the atoms degrade at a measurable pace. Why wouldn't it all happen at once or all happen quickly then slowly or not happen at all and then happen?
@Tarou900011 ай бұрын
@@Trumpstinks probability, it's more likely for it to degrade smoothly than for every atom to be more in sync with each other
@mythbuster58111 ай бұрын
I finely understood my lessons after 40 years. Great day!
@davetoms111 ай бұрын
Out of the hundreds of carbon dating explanations I've heard, this is the _first time_ anyone has answered a question I've always had: How do we date something if all Carbon-14 is continually decaying everywhere? And Neil's answer is simple in its two parts: 1) The environment continually makes more such that the ratio is relatively stable by replenishing the decayed atoms, and 2) Living things replenish their internal stock of carbon up until, obviously, they die. Thank you, Neil.
@felipaorfr11 ай бұрын
Yes, the chain is very interesting. Nitrogen 14 in the atmosphere receives a neutron from cosmic rays wich kicks off a proton from the nucleus and turns it into Carbon 14. Plants absorb by photosynthesis, everyone eats plants or animals that eat plants, so everyone ends up with Carbon 14. Things die, and for thousands of years we can date them by measuring the Carbon 14 left. Some people are pretty damn smart.
@andrewdenzov330311 ай бұрын
If it wasn’t obvious I have bad news…
@7hekaka11 ай бұрын
@@andrewdenzov3303😂😂 you’re not good
@andrewdenzov330311 ай бұрын
Never tried to be good. And if one interested enough in c14 dating to get some understanding on subject it’s pity that he needs pseudo humor to understand subject
@OlegSidorenko197411 ай бұрын
@@andrewdenzov3303is this you, Wednesday? Oops, pseudo humour I reckon...
@joseluisrevelo11 ай бұрын
If I had had teachers this good I wouldn’t be here at my age finally learning something so basic. Thank you Neil!
@jaegerschtulmann11 ай бұрын
We need a better system where teaching jobs are the highest paid profession
@bsadewitz9 ай бұрын
My teachers were pretty good. The problem was me. Although, wait, you never learned what an isotope is in school?
@danielsantaella43044 ай бұрын
But you have them now
@nerdative11 ай бұрын
You should keep doing these types of episodes, fun, existing, informative. I wish my chemistry teacher was like you
@KJF-ny11 ай бұрын
Agreed. I'm sitting here at 40 going, "Aha!" Wish I was able to wrap my head around it back in high school.
@YTsuuuucks11 ай бұрын
Agreed. However I’m not sure I would’ve been ready for that in HS. My chemistry teacher hated me, and I don’t think I can blame him much now … was too busy weighing myself on the gram scales and using bunsen burners as flamethrowers 😂
@johnkhd151211 ай бұрын
One of the questions from my chemistry test was literally to date a rock from a volcano
@orestis01611 ай бұрын
A group is visiting a natural history museum. When their guide reaches at some very interesting dinosaur fossil, he says "This is a 180million and 12 years old fossil". Someone from the audience asks "Hey, how do you know it's 180million AND TWELVE???" "Well, I was told it was 180 million years old when I first came here, and I came 12 years ago"
@shirleenrodriguez335511 ай бұрын
I know I may not be smarter. But I always feel smarter after watching these videos. This is a good one.
@debranelson198711 ай бұрын
Yes, I know what you mean about feeling more intelligent after watching Neil's videos and it's a good feeling.
@antoniosalgado588511 ай бұрын
@@debranelson1987dude frrr it fills me with so much happiness to learn from people who genuinely are excited to talk about this stuff
@FezMooseLive11 ай бұрын
Because you are learning 😂 dont doubt yourself. Im 22, failed highschool, and I'm learning more here then from school. Mostly because Neil and Chuck make learning way more fun. I feel like I would have loved learning if I had one of them as teachers.
@Logan-lb2gl11 ай бұрын
Whoever's been editing your videos lately has been killing it. 👏🏻 Thanks for another great video, Neil and Chuck!
@araiaf11 ай бұрын
Thanks!
@Blackrhyme711 ай бұрын
That is why I love this show, such simple explanation how it actually works the whole carbon dating.
@ValgardDerithos11 ай бұрын
Just before the end of the year, I was teaching this at class: nuclear desintegration and reactions, and Carbon-14 dating is a great source of exercises. As usual, you've explained it gorgeously.
@garydunken793411 ай бұрын
What a great explanation of isotopes of elements. Thank you.
@dwightbehm288611 ай бұрын
I am no chemist. But an old friend Iv known for 23 years Gave me an old chemistry book his daughter studied from when she was young in high school. I left it in my basement on a shelf for roughly 10 years. Then one day during a bout of unemployment with nothing to do in boredom I came across it and began to read it some of it is hard and boring I'm no Mathematician but I read all the articles of interest. I am a mechanic retired now but back when I learned electronics and how every thing worked. But when I read that chemistry book I learned alot more about electricity it was amazing what I learned from that book. The how's and why. Simply amazing.
@susanjimenez550011 ай бұрын
Love this! I had forgotten how this worked, and occasionally it would come up, and I would think to myself that I had to look up how this worked bc I didn't remember. Thanks for the explanation! 😊
@abstract524911 ай бұрын
Neil has a knack for explaining topics we've learned somewhere before and think about vaguely, but don't really understand/have forgotten. Then he sprinkles in some new facts and creates a connection we hadn't previously made. That's what I love about Startalk. You're always learning and thinking about things in new ways.
@englewoodmusic11 ай бұрын
I will just start carbon dating instead of asking for IDs
@ludachris792011 ай бұрын
Lolol
@ProfShibe11 ай бұрын
real
@ChristinaGuzik11 ай бұрын
Naw, you can't carbon date it if it's living. Don't you watch Young Sheldon?
@englewoodmusic11 ай бұрын
@@ChristinaGuzik teeth
@citypavement11 ай бұрын
7:48 please watch the whole thing. lol
@cabji11 ай бұрын
Ive been trying to learn about chemistry online and this was a great supplement about isotopes. In orher videos they just say the words and gloss over what they mean. It helps a lot to have a further explanation about specific things like this.
@Roffgar11 ай бұрын
Freaking love you guys. Always excited to learn something new, and am never disappointed 😊
@isatousarr70444 ай бұрын
Isotopes play a crucial role in various scientific fields, from geology to biology, by providing insights into the processes and history of the natural world. Different isotopes of an element have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons, which can lead to variations in physical and chemical properties. These variations are invaluable for understanding everything from the age of rocks (through radiometric dating) to tracing the pathways of biochemical processes in organisms. Isotopes offer a window into the past and present, revealing hidden details about environmental changes, biological pathways, and even the evolution of life on Earth. How have isotopic analyses advanced our understanding of Earth's geological history and the evolution of life? Can isotopic variations in biological systems provide insights into the adaptability and resilience of organisms in changing environments?
@alexanderstolzenburg123211 ай бұрын
Please, please: No background "music" while talking
@sanZeeet8 ай бұрын
I know for non native speaker music disturb to get it understand, you should on subtitle ,,,But it makes the things more dramatic,,helps as lot of people focus more.
@sanZeeet8 ай бұрын
I know for non native speaker music disturb to get it understand, you should on subtitle ,,,But it makes the things more dramatic,,helps as lot of people focus more.
@GooogleGoglee8 ай бұрын
I agree better without music. No matter the mother-tongue
@mahinahmed2316Ай бұрын
Its fine as long as its non intrusive
@jckdnls929229 күн бұрын
Fine with me, depends on the music
@jaybee858111 ай бұрын
Great vid. I prefer these short explainers to the comedic/interrupting the guest shows. Thanks for having these available StarTalk.
@EP-ni6my11 ай бұрын
So you explained about Carbon-14 and the decay. But if you age something by home much decayed, how did you know how much was there to start?
@vykintasmorkvenas683911 ай бұрын
That's what have always boggling my mind. Because as Neil said the STARTING level has always been changing.
@timharig11 ай бұрын
The amount doesn't matter. It's the ratio of the carbon isotopes that matters. Carbon dating works because C14 is created at a reliable rate in the ionosphere compared to its natural decay. So before we started testing nuclear bombs 1945, the ratio of C14:C12 in carbon dioxide was predictable. Since plants get their carbon from the atmosphere , their C12:C14 ratio matches the atmospheric ratio so long as they are living and breathing. When the die, they stop breathing and no longer exchange atoms with the environment. Then the C14 decays away at a predictable rate reducing its ratio to the C12 that does not decay. We can measure that ratio, and use some mathematics to determine how long the C14 must hame been decaying to reach that ratio and infer when the plant died.
@vykintasmorkvenas683911 ай бұрын
@@timharig how do we know the rate has always been the same? I believe Neil himself said it's changing.
@TonkarzOfSolSystem11 ай бұрын
Something he didn’t go into is that the ratio of carbon 12 to carbon 14 is the same in every living thing at any given time. Because of the way nature produces carbon 14 in the upper atmosphere, and the effectively identical way carbon 12 and carbon 14 are absorbed into the biosphere. So the ratio of the two at any given time in a living thing is the same as the overall ratio of carbon 12 and carbon 14 on earth in general. So when scientists do radiocarbon dating they’re concerned with the ratio of carbon 12 to carbon 14. Now, as Neil alluded to it’s not quite as simple as “5% of the carbon is carbon 14? must 850 years old” (these numbers are for illustrative purposes only). Why? Because the proportion of carbon 12 to carbon 14 in the environment in general may change over time. Like Neil said, nuclear testing had a significant effect, but it also changes over time for other reasons. Which was proven in the 1960s via tree ring data. Armed with this data scientists constructed a calibration curve to convert the sample measurements into an actual date. The modern radiocarbon calibration curve includes data from coral, plant macrofossils, rocks and, according to wikipedia, “foraminifera”.
@timharig11 ай бұрын
@@vykintasmorkvenas6839 This is a KZbin comment section. It is a simplified explanation. A detailed explanation of of all the accounting done to estimate accuracies based on things like atmospheric variation, contamination, etc. could literally require a book and expert knowledge to understand. It is far beyond the scope of a KZbin comment. The simplest explanation that I can give you is that carbon dating doesn't happen an an isolated case. It is compared against other samples from similar areas, similar environments, similar time frames, and often correlated with other dating techniques. The more similar and the more verified samples available to compare against, the more accurate and more narrow a samples estimated date is likely to be. When you get a sample dated, you do not get back a specific date. You receive a confidence interval of the statistically likely dates. Depending how many similar samples were available to help remove confounding variables, the times span could be quite narrow or quite wide.
@dr.x405011 ай бұрын
This video is extremely helpful, clear, and easy to understand.
@SiqueScarface11 ай бұрын
Maybe it helps to point out that C14 is generated from the N14 in the air, and thus is converted into sugar by green plants via photosynthesis. The C14 we humans ingest is already in the process of decaying, and continues to decay in our body, so the age we determine from C14 dating is not exactly our age, but the age of the leaf or fruit of the plant we ate (or the animal ate which meat we eat), and whose organic matter our body converts into its own organic matter. Thus the presence of cosmic rays and atmospheric nitrogen is what in the end causes C14 to be present in organic matter and not in fossil matter, because the fossil carbon was not exposed to atmospheric nitrogen converted into radioactive carbon for a very long time.
@lismararnal962811 ай бұрын
I admire you so much Neil! Happy New Year for you and Chuck 🎉🎉🎉
@Zoditron11 ай бұрын
I'm glad I watched this video because the isotope stuff I learned back in highschool was beginning to fade from my memory.
@danm357011 ай бұрын
this was great, i vaguely understood how carbon dating worked but never had it explained properly, thanks. Isotopes and compounds are fascinating 😁
@BIGTTSNORLAX11 ай бұрын
great editing! I think this really helps the explainer videos get some extra value
@susanlilley-rizos990610 ай бұрын
That was such a good lesson! I never really understood carbon 14 dating till now, thank you!
@Ericwvb211 ай бұрын
This is a really well presented, entertaining and informative short lecture on isotopes. Fun related fact: as Dr. Tyson alluded to, the man made nuclear tests added so much Carbon-14 to the environment that it changed these ratios, and the ratios went back to the natural levels when atomic testing stopped. Scientists can actually look for nuclear bomb era testing levels of C-14 in tissue and make all sorts of interesting conclusions as there is sort of a nuclear fingerprint. One conclusion reached by examining nuclear bomb C-14 levels in Greenland sharks was that they have extremely long lifespans - 390 years or even longer. By looking at the amount of nuclear bomb era C-14 levels in the molars of human skeletons we can estimate the age of the person when they died to within 1 or 2 years. So it's possible to make conclusions not just how long ago something died, but how old it was when it did.
@komeseetv584311 ай бұрын
Thanks Doc Tyson and Chuck Nice for this explainer. The visuals make it a lot more fun. I felt like I was back in science class.
@petersage515711 ай бұрын
I'm so old that archaeologists want to date me. Just to be clear, you don't get C-14 by whacking two neutrons into C-12, but by throwing a neutron at N-14 and knocking out a proton. (That's not exactly what happens, but I challenge anyone to explain it better in less than 50 words.) The C-14 then decays back to N-14 by emitting an electron and an antineutrino.
@judyparker845911 ай бұрын
Love the visuals! Very helpful, I finally learned how carbon-14 works. Well done, everybody.😊 I'm re-reading Oliver Sacks' book "Uncle Tungsten" and am in the chapter of his love, as a young boy, for the elements, that never ceased his whole life. It was hard to imagine being so passionate about these but your video here helped me to see how that's possible. Thanks!
@azilbean11 ай бұрын
Putting that on my reading list, thanks!!
@NinjaOrchids10 ай бұрын
Finally an explanation that a dyslexic could comprehend straight away! Thank you!! Super fun to listen to and now I am eager to try and get more understanding on a topic that used to give me anxiety 👍🏼
@Adriaan19878 ай бұрын
some say Einstein was dyslapstic
@timdotterweich738010 ай бұрын
Neil, where were you when I was in high school and needed a chemistry teacher who could elements and isotopes where I could understand them?
@aaronbailey2311 ай бұрын
I’m a nuclear medicine technologist. Always cool when Dr. Tyson visits my neck of the woods.
@TheGiggleMasterP11 ай бұрын
When one carbon atom really likes another carbon atom they start dating... 😅
@Cioper11 ай бұрын
It's so much better when you add pictures and animations to your videos.
@josephstandish59911 ай бұрын
-What did the chemist say when he found two new isotopes of helium? HeHe -Are there any good jokes about sodium? Na
@Tommyoda11 ай бұрын
a couple exist about Uranium 😁
@KllswtchOvrDrv11 ай бұрын
I'm digging the background music
@Adriaan19878 ай бұрын
Ave Maria; if you didnt already know...🙃
@lalchhanhima_DarkHeart10 ай бұрын
Neil is one of the best for me... His explanation is clear and concise. Easy to understand. This is best carbon dating chapter of my life 🤣
@movingtheworld386211 ай бұрын
I can watch this kind of video all day long! Thank you Neil 🧠👏🏼
@IamRobinD11 ай бұрын
I wish my science teachers were more like you Neil. You make it fun to learn science. From grade 7-12, I disliked science class because my teachers were boring. I'm 29 and have learned so much from you.
@fabianmckenna819711 ай бұрын
Agreed, it's great when teachers make stuff interesting....... Could never get to grips with history at school with all these important dates getting crammed down your throat but when I began working back shift and nightshift, I started watching historical TV programs and wow, I understood it all!
@Golgot1003 ай бұрын
Loved the pacing on the animations and the fun you brought to the topic. Great vid :)
@Jacobjef11 ай бұрын
A very good explainer video. This is how it should be done!! Shoutout to the ones who made the graphics alongside the explainer !!
@dereksawle11 ай бұрын
Great explanation - loved it!
@walterhernandez98679 ай бұрын
Carbon dating is a hotline where coal, diamonds and graphite gather to have a good time.
@coletteHawk11 ай бұрын
Thank you for that clear and succinct explanation.
@archanam322210 ай бұрын
Thank you for took me to my school days. A perfect show for who love science and for those who hates.
@MBY195210 ай бұрын
ניל דגריי כל מה שהינך מלמד אפילו שהם חזרה על הנלמד מדהים בפשטות ההסבר. מרצה מעולה והומניסט . תודה רבה .
@NaimTheRuleBreaker11 ай бұрын
I love this man. Loud and clear❤
@johntumpkin392411 ай бұрын
This is a very clear and helpful explanation of some complex phenomena, allowing only interpretations and perspectives to conflict. 👍👍
@samkelly999 ай бұрын
Thanks guys ! This was super helpful. Currently talking about this in my Anthropology class and was wondering what the heck it is LOL fascinating
@shuboc832611 ай бұрын
Superb, I havn't studied science as a subject in my graduation and post studies. but lemme tell you, I was always interested, (can't get it coz' am poor at maths.) THIS IS THE BEST VIDEP TO TEACH ME THE CONCEPT OF ANY ONE PART OF SCIENCE - in this case Carbon Dating. Look forward to get more such videos. Great Work
@kxqe11 ай бұрын
Thank you for using a thumbnail on this video that accurately represents its content.
@Bowie_E11 ай бұрын
Somehow, the editing has become even better than before. Excellent stuff 😂 🤗 🥰
@canadianperson483011 ай бұрын
Question please... It's my understanding that Carbon14 atoms are formed by the interaction of cosmic rays to form the isotope. If the rate of cosmic ray saturation is based on the magnetic shield of Earth which fluctuates in intensity, and we havent been monitoring the magnetic shield for that long, how can we be positive about the decay rate? Also...doesnt that also hold true for other radiometric dating processes?
@davidgatzen154310 ай бұрын
When Mendeleev made his periodic table in 1869, he did not know what a proton was, because the proton was not discovered until 1917. Mendeleev made his periodic chart, based on the chemical properties and other physical properties of the elements, and was clever enough to predict some of the missing elements. The chemical properties of an element depends on the number of protons in the elements core, so in away, Mendeleev was indirectly basing his periodic chart on the number of protons each element has per atom.
@SanoManjiro30510 ай бұрын
Amazing explanation!
@Yungbeck11 ай бұрын
These are so good! Some people look at you sideways for even knowing about isotopes smh. Also, your editor is goated.
@K_Isla11 ай бұрын
Learning more physics and chemistry from you than I did in high school 😢
@JohnnySpectron11 ай бұрын
Really enjoying watching your vids at work. Good stuff!! Always learning 🌟
@scienceapplied542410 ай бұрын
6:52 that’s presuming that c14 exposure was the same through all human history, this is not something we can validate, making carbon dating only valid when other dating methods can be used to validate it. This is shown by our impact on c14 levels 7:50 . So any dates beyond recorded history aren’t reliable as we have to know the native c14 at the time to validate the calculations
@ECXProjectbyJoey11 ай бұрын
As someone who create video, that mini dolly zoom when Neil reveals carbon isotopes delights my soul
@J.Tronix11 ай бұрын
Da Tyson pulling in clutch with this refresher so I can listen to that JRE podcast with the mammoth bones
@Lambbeast9911 ай бұрын
Chucks unstable reference had me rolling😅
@Scruples111 ай бұрын
Chuck is the isotope of Neil
@The-binge_71011 ай бұрын
GREAT CONTENT
@jameshedden226011 ай бұрын
Carbon-14: the dating app for scientists and science enthusiasts
@insanusmaximus285711 ай бұрын
I can never remember how that stuff works! I'm definitely saving this video.
@alan_yong11 ай бұрын
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 📚 *Overview of Isotopes* - Elements in the periodic table have a specific number of protons in their nucleus. - Gaps in the periodic table led to the discovery of missing elements by determining the proton count. - Protons are held together by the strong force, facilitated by neutrons, preventing repulsion. 03:00 🧲 *The Strong Force and Neutrons* - The strong force, mediated by gluons, holds protons together in the nucleus. - Neutrons act as a glue, reducing resistive forces in the nucleus. - The stability of atoms relies on the balance between protons and neutrons. 04:54 💧 *Isotopes of Hydrogen* - Adding or subtracting neutrons from hydrogen creates isotopes (e.g., deuterium and tritium). - Heavy water, containing deuterium, has unique properties. - Tritium, with two added neutrons, is another isotope of hydrogen. 06:00 ⏰ *Carbon Isotopes and Carbon Dating* - Carbon isotopes, like carbon-12 and carbon-14, play a role in dating techniques. - Carbon-14 dating relies on the decay of unstable carbon-14 over time. - The half-life of carbon-14 allows dating of events from recent history to thousands of years ago. 07:32 🌍 *Cosmic Ray Influence and Nuclear Tests* - Cosmic rays and nuclear tests contribute to carbon-14 levels in the environment. - Living organisms maintain a balance of carbon isotopes until death. - Nuclear tests in the 1950s and 60s affected the baseline measurements of carbon isotopes. 09:08 ☀️ *Helium Isotopes and Solar Ejection* - Helium-4 is stable with two protons and two neutrons. - Removing one neutron results in helium-3, an isotope. - Helium-3, ejected by the sun, becomes embedded in the lunar surface. Made with HARPA AI
@desireer691511 ай бұрын
Thank you so much! ❤ Super helpful and interesting!
@rainsfall411911 ай бұрын
2:36 i always love these sudden genius comedy moments in startalk 😂 every time i watch these two my anxiety disagrees
@semanavidi869411 ай бұрын
Great source of science, thanks Dr. Tyson and the other gentleman.
@Nefville11 ай бұрын
I'd love to see an explainer on precious metals; rarity, what makes them desirable, useful in scientific applications, industrial ones, emissions even. I know Neil has an 18kt gold Moonwatch, fitting for a cosmologist, he knows a thing or two about them. I find them fascinating from a materials/ elemental point of view. I'm not a $5, its a cup of coffee, Patreon member but I thought I'd ask.
@antoniosalgado588511 ай бұрын
Oh dude NileRed has some cool videos on how metals and other weird stuff works in a scientific setting I 100% but he doesn’t do the nuanced explanations like on startalk
@bobygunarso883311 ай бұрын
Thank you very much for the great explanation, Neil! You are the best! 😊
@MurphyTheOldMan11 ай бұрын
if only my school teacher had such talent of teaching.... I would have become a scientist
@EmpyreanLightASMR11 ай бұрын
Did you guys just change your logo and image this morning? It looks FANTASTIC. I've secretly been hoping for a new logo for a while now 😂
@cedwardsmedia2 ай бұрын
5:57 I'll make it if I can get you guys to sponsor/advertise it! We'll split profits. BUT Neil has to help me develop the perfect algorithm to match the nerds. 8:20 Here's the one question I can't seem to find any answer to - given that we've only been semi-scientifically-inclined for the last several hundred years, how do we know for certain that carbon decays at a steady rate and the decay doesn't accelerate or decelerate over time? I don't ask to challenge the idea, I ask because I'm genuinely curious how we can be so certain that something takes exactly X,000 years to do something when we can't possibly have observed it for that timeframe with our recently-educated minds. What if the decay occurs over a an exponential scale? What if, after X amount decays, the process speeds up? How do we prove or disprove this? I'm genuinely curious and I hope someone can offer a reasonable explanation for someone with virtually no experience in this field whatsoever.
@Yovo55510 ай бұрын
I’ve learnt something today. Cheers
@jeffhidalgo845711 ай бұрын
Great talk! Thanks Professor! Happy New Year!!!
@priyanthapereramahahewage100411 ай бұрын
Nicely explained. Big Thank you
@TerryRebel11 ай бұрын
I f**king love these videos. Thank you for teaching me❤ You’re never too old to learn.
@willstiegler811111 ай бұрын
Awesome lesson about our periodic table of elements 😂!!! Love ya Neil, please keep em commin cause I have a huge thirst for knowledge 😉 😜
@cryptonitor985511 ай бұрын
We needed this from you. Thanks
@Shotbyadap9 ай бұрын
Learned more in 10 minutes watching this than I did in a whole year of chemistry class
@monkerud210811 ай бұрын
a useful intuition about decay that has a half life, is that it is 1 a random process whether fundamentally random or not, and two there is no difference from one second to the next in the probability of decay related to entropy. take for example the branch of a dead tree, if it is decaying continually, at some point it will break, but as time passes, it will get into a less and less structurally sound state, this is not how nuclear decay works, a tree branch does not have a similar kind of half life, only sort of over very short time scales to to speak, you can do statistics on tree branches if you are careful about the material strength and shape and so on, and the probability of them breaking would be on average some like some very long half life, that gets shorter and shorter very suddenly some time after the tree dies. so a process like nuclear decay if it is to be modeled by some process happening to a structure, it would basically have to be some structure that is preserved more or less exactly on average over time, but that can fluctuate into different configurations randomly or quasi randomly and the rarity of a state corresponding to a decay is what would give you the half life, if you had a million, you expect one to decay every so often, then you turn that expectation for short times into a rate of having half of them decay, and there you go, it is important to keep the factoid that the process is not some progressing decay over time until the last straw breaks the camels back, but a kind of random jiggling of the structure that sometimes leads to decay, that is characteristic of randomness that doesn't change from moment to moment, like trowing a die and hoping for a 6, you are just as likely to get it on the first throw as the millionth.
@louvagod11 ай бұрын
loved the video. Still have somes questions though. What does it mean for an atom to be stable or unstable? Why does it matter that carbon 14 is unstable?
@Ericwvb211 ай бұрын
An atom is unstable if it is radioactive. That is, over time, it will emit radiation as it turns into something else, in this case Nitrogen-14. The half-life of a particular radioactive element is how long it takes for half of a particular amount of that element to decay.
@tjay843311 ай бұрын
Chuck is the star of the show. And neils laugh is the supernova.❤🎉😅
@obetz416011 ай бұрын
Love the visuals it help a lot. Thank you.
@charlessukati486611 ай бұрын
Beautifully explained 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
@anilgonsalves11 ай бұрын
Brilliantly explained.
@monarch6t911 ай бұрын
💀 this guy explained it so easily i have never felt this easy to comprehend anything
@Warlock8ZERO11 ай бұрын
Question - So if you're trying to carbon date something that is carbon 13, how do you know when the decay started in order to calculate the time? Couldn't it have been carbon 14, but decayed so much, it's now carbon 13, but you can't tell the difference, and you would have to calculate it somewhere in-between the two decay rates? Hope that makes sense, basically how do you carbon date something, if it's impossible to tell what the original number of neutrons started at.
@Ericwvb211 ай бұрын
Carbon 14 decays into Nitrogen 14. You have a base ratio of Carbon-14 to Carbon-12 (which as Dr. Tyson explained has to be adjusted due to atomic testing) for living things. Once the living thing dies and stops replacing the existing carbon with new carbon from the environment, the Carbon-14 decays away and that ratio changes.
@timharig11 ай бұрын
1. C14 doesn't decay into C13. It decays into N14 giving off a beta particle in the process. 2. It wouldn't matter if it did. What matters is the change in ratios of the isotopes. As long as the amount of C14 is changing relative to another at a constant rate, you could still calculator hope long it has been changing.
@Warlock8ZERO11 ай бұрын
@@timharig Ah okay, didn't know that thanks, I still don't get that if you came across N14, would you just assume it was C14 before and date it based on that? Not sure how you would tell the difference between currently decaying C14 and something that used to be C14, but has since changed forms from decay.
@timharig11 ай бұрын
@@Warlock8ZERO It is called carbon dating and not nitrogen dating for a reason. Some forms of radiometric dating do make use of the decay products (such as uranium-lead dating). Carbon-14 dating does not. What matters is the ratios (pursuant to point two above). Due to a balance in the rate of carbon-14 being made in the ionosphere and its decay, C14 accounts for 1 part per trillion of carbon atoms in the atmosphere. A live plant gets most of its carbon mass by respiration. Photosynthesis converts carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into glucose. So the ratios of carbon atoms in living plants closely match those of the atmosphere. Animals eat plants or eat other animals that have eaten plants, so their carbon ratios are also close to those found in the atmosphere. When an organism dies, it stops breathing and becomes a closed system. C12 and C13 are stable. Their mass will not change. C14 however will decay with a half life of 5730 years and no longer be replaced post mortem. So 5730 years after death, the amount of C14 will only be 0.5 parts per trillion of the total carbon atoms present in the organism. So to date an organism, a sample of the organism is ionized into plasma and accelerated to a highly accurate velocity inside of a linear accelerator. Then it is shot out through perpendicular magnetic field. By the right hand rule, the magnetic field will induce a force perpendicular to both the direction of the linear accelerators velocity and the magnetic field causing the ionized atoms to curve. Since the atoms all left the accelerator with the same velocity, the radius of their curve is determined by their mass. By placing particle detectors at the curve radii for C12, C13, and C14 it is possible to count the number of atoms of each isotope. This is called a linear accelerator mass spectrometer. We know that the number of C14 atoms started at 1 part per trillion of the carbon atoms. We have measured the current ratio of C14 to carbon atoms. We know that the number of C14 carbon atoms has been decaying with the remaining mass calculated by: r = m(1/2)^(t/5730) Where: t is the amount of time since death m is the initial ratio of C14 at 1 part per trillion r is the ratio of C14 after time t as measured in the linear accelerator mass spectrometer 5730 is the half life of C14 Solve for t: r = m(1/2)^(t/5730) (r/m) = (1/2)^(t/5730) log(r/m) = (t/5730)log(1/2) t = 5730log(r/m)/log(1/2) After that, analysis will be done to estimate the measurement error and to control for confounding variables such as contamination from other carbon sources. The end result will be a confidence interval of the most likely range of years that the organism could have died in.
@BigAl-IRL11 ай бұрын
Interesting and useful, thank you!
@MrRevertis11 ай бұрын
This was excellent, thank you Neil and Chuck. I'm going to seem really smart on day 1 of my intro to radiation physics course. Day 2 maybe not so much...
@rowanpike11 ай бұрын
This was extremely helpful. Thanks!!
@glennglenn678711 ай бұрын
Mate will watch all your video's you are the man thanks
@owenstark270411 ай бұрын
Niel, I’m studying archaeology/physical anthropology at the University of British Columbia. I’m a huge fan and I’ll forgive the fact that you barely spoke about applications of radiocarbon dating. Anyways I love you Niel say it back… “I love you too” it’s not that hard Niel say it back… please:(
@citypavement11 ай бұрын
If it's any consolation, I love you.
@owenstark270411 ай бұрын
@@citypavement thx king, but u aren’t Degussy-tysussy😒
@LSA3011 ай бұрын
All I know about the Isotopes is that they were going to be illegitimately moved to Albuquerque and- Oh, wait. Wrong show😅
@ajay-xjs11 ай бұрын
I skipped Chemistry at school, which I now regret, but at least I now know what an isotope is. I wish I had NdGT as my school teacher