Radioactivity (14 of 16) Carbon-14 Dating, an Explanation

This video explains the carbon-14 method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of this radioactive isotope of carbon.
Carbon has two stable non-radioactive isotopes, carbon-12 and carbon-13, and one radioactive isotope, carbon-14. The half-life of carbon-14 is 5730 years. Because of its relatively short half-life you might expect that its concentration in the atmosphere would be reduced over thousands of years but new carbon-14 is always being produced in the upper atmosphere by the interaction of cosmic rays, neutrons and nitrogen-14 atoms. Therefore the concentration of carbon-14 in the atmosphere is relatively constant.
Plants and animals have the same concentration of carbon-14 as the atmosphere because they are constantly exchanging it with their environment. When they die, the carbon-14 in their bodies continues to decay, but they are no longer able to take up new carbon-14 and the concentration of carbon-14 in their bodies decreases. Knowing the concentration of carbon-14 at the time of death and the concentration of carbon-14 some time (t) after death enables you to determine how long it has been since the plant or animal died.
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[@jermainechambers9600]

I am amazed at how you make concepts this easy to understand. Keep up the excellent work

[@stepbystepscience]

Thanks, will do!

[@robertbelcher2116]

Anthropology professors like me are smiling for your doing this!!! A topic that I am not proficient in.

[@stepbystepscience]

Great, thanks for watching and commenting.

[@jeffharrison1090]

Boy, this was the best and clearest explanation of Carbon dating! Thanks so much!!!

[@stepbystepscience]

You're very welcome! Thanks for the positive comment.

[@blessedbeliever8725]

Wow, I have no idea what you said but I am happy that you provided an example because no one was doing that and for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how someone would be able to determine how much C14 there was originally- when the person, animal, or plant died. You at least explained it even though after one viewing I have no idea what you said. I will go back over and try to break it down slowly, so maybe I will get it later. Thanks a bunch….I will subscribe.

[@stepbystepscience]

Glad this was helpful and I hope the explanation is clear now.

[@MiaGiselleful]

Thank you! 🙏 I FINALLY understand thanks to your explanation!

[@stepbystepscience]

That's great, glad it helped!

[@alecdoyle1563]

Wow this is amazing I’m using this for agricultural reasons for my feedings. Blast off! Boom atmospheric love is in the air. Great Star got me interested immediately your great man. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I’ll be here for agriculture reasons this helps use break down lower particles

[@sofiacrespo490]

Thank you so much for the wonderful explanation, it’s so clear and detailed 🙏

[@stepbystepscience]

Glad it was helpful. Thanks for the nice comment.

[@minhhainguyen2671]

extremely excellent teaching!. thank you so much.

[@stepbystepscience]

You're very welcome and thanks for watching!

[@bt..125]

It's an amazing video, I slept in my class when this topic was going on and I missed it so I looked on yt and found your vdo and now I have understood each and every concept of it, thank you so much

[@stepbystepscience]

I'm so glad you found my channel!

[@siddhantsrivastava5697]

loved this explanation!

[@stepbystepscience]

So glad, thank you!

[@geoffphillips8183]

A vid for all science students to see, thanks. Very well explained!😀

[@stepbystepscience]

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the nice comment.

[@choyou3932]

Great content!

[@stepbystepscience]

Thanks very much!

[@latino.raptor]

Thanks! really great!

[@stepbystepscience]

Glad you liked it!

[@heathercostantini8755]

I have always wondered why the carbon 14 would decay at a different rate in the stuff that was being measured ... thank you so much for this wonderful explanation. How do we know that the carbon 14 concentration was the same 60k years ago as it is now? Could the amount of cosmic rays change?

[@tri0nyx]

This deserves a like.

[@MannyGarcia78209]

Great job

[@stepbystepscience]

Thanks so much and best wishes

[@luceromausolff6997]

Great visual explanation. I wish you reach your viewers. Good luck. Thans for doing this video very interesting

[@stepbystepscience]

Thanks so much and best wishes

[@mazharpec3255]

Sir thanks you very much for your kindness

[@stepbystepscience]

You're very welcome.

[@Sika457]

I like this video. Well done sir.

[@stepbystepscience]

Thanks for the positive comment.

[@mazharpec3255]

Respected sir, well explained , excellent job done

[@stepbystepscience]

So nice of you, thanks!

[@ItumelengMotlana]

Awesome 👌

[@stepbystepscience]

Thanks!

[@leo_27_]

Thank you so much

[@stepbystepscience]

You're most welcome

[@basharatkhan7290]

very nice

[@stepbystepscience]

Thanks!

[@nadivkatulanda]

Thankyou!!!!

[@stepbystepscience]

You are very welcome.

[@mephiz1919]

I like the step by step process you presented. Clear and to the point. Keep it up. One question I have is can I speed up the number of C 14 lost by increasing or decreasing pressure, temperature? Water content? Exposure to UV rays? Microwaves?

[@stepbystepscience]

Thanks for the comment. I do not think that you can really change the decay rate.

[@mephiz1919]

@@stepbystepscience How come? If the molecular structure is weakened, shouldn't the sample lose carbon faster?

[@fatimamohammed586]

It is completely impossible to change the half-life of an isotope. Unlike chemical reactions whose speed (The rate at which they occur) is affected by factors such as temperature, pressure, concentration, or catalysts, half-lives (speeds of nuclear reactions) aren't affected by such factors and are always fixed or constant.

[@mephiz1919]

@@fatimamohammed586 I see your point and thank you for your explanation. I guess I didn't write it better. What I mean is at a fixed rate, say for example you put out one box on the assembly line a second. You use a certain amount of resources to make the boxes until you run out and then you are done with your shift. When I said increase or decrease the half life, I probably meant, can you speed up the breakdown process and ultimately turn the material to dust via its molecular structure breaking apart? In relation to the box example, you are not making bigger or smaller boxes, rather something or someone helps you make 20 boxes a sec, but the material per box is exactly the same, meaning the half life is the same, but you finish your shift sooner, meaning the material breaks down faster than if it was in the dark, away from sunlight, high heat, erosion, oxidation, acids and bases, etc. I meant to say there are other factors that break the material faster and that exposes the inner material to the elements sooner, thus they add more "workers" to start breaking down the inner material, thus the material looks older, or younger, depending on the circumstances and what we are used of seeing when seeing something old or young. Even if the half life stays the same, the material does not meet our expectations of what we think of as old or young looking. That is what I meant to address, but it seems we are on the same page.

[@aharon6035]

@@mephiz1919 did you ever get an answer to this question you posed them?

[@vaibhavchari]

Very good explanation Please make a video on artificial radioactivity. Th. You

[@stepbystepscience]

Thanks, will try

[@zefallafez]

What’s the delineation of the common era and before the common era?

[@Cloxygen]

How are you getting the measurements from the carbon samples? Also how are you able to tell how many neutrons each atom has?

[@stepbystepscience]

The number of neutrons is determined by smashing atoms together in a particle accelerator. I am not sure what you mean by measurements from the carbon samples, but this can be done with a mass spectrometer.

[@fatimamohammed586]

This is given information

[@markovnikovchung9152]

I would like to know how do you get 1 gram of carbon sample from the dead pharaoh? And how are you going to measure the number of C14 atoms in that 1 gram of carbon sample to get N(t)?

[@AMBIN-tt8wi]

all living organism has the same carbon 14 composition in the body.

[@danielrushing4702]

I am wondering how you would get value of n (0) for any thing else? Good work on the video btw.

[@stepbystepscience]

The charge on a neutron is zero.

[@dr.khaldounsalmanabualhin]

Thanks

[@stepbystepscience]

You're welcome, thanks for watching.

[@richardcoterie8091]

Never gonna give you up.

[@stepbystepscience]

I'll try to never let you down!

[@ashtonGM2550]

the amount of initial amount of C-14 *(N0) is equal for all plants and people and objects?

[@stepbystepscience]

For all organic matter.

[@KevinChantal]

@@stepbystepscience And in the example: How do I get the initial value of N (0) ? (5,02×10^10 C14)

[@danielrushing4702]

@@KevinChantal this is a good question i was wondering generally how you would get n (0)

[@t13fox67]

Does the co2 stay in the body's tissue or in the lungs as we breathe it in and out?

[@stepbystepscience]

The carbon-14 stays in your body tissue.

[@t13fox67]

@@stepbystepscience thank you. This has been interesting series, even though I'm 70 years old, I still like nuclear physics.

[@happyface4711]

I'm a ged student that got curious about this subject and I'm over here like 0-0 this is not where I belong lol but seriously good video I was understanding it until you did the math. It shows me how much I need to learn.

[@stepbystepscience]

You take your time and try to go through it step by step and you'll get it.

[@happyface4711]

@@stepbystepscience ya but I gotta look up how to do all that math 🤣🤣🤣

[@happyface4711]

@@stepbystepscience thankyou for the encouraging words

[@mazharpec3255]

Kindly share link for maths

[@obedd3740]

Why 5730 years?

[@stepbystepscience]

Because that is the measured half-life of carbon-14.

[@sunilpachwane5186]

After absorption of neutron how does it remains 14it should be 15

[@stepbystepscience]

Yes, it absorbs a neutron but then emits a proton so the pass number stays the same (14) and the atomic number goes down by one, from 7 to 6. Does that clear it up for you?

[@sunilpachwane5186]

Ok sir 👍

[@miraclechisom4148]

Chemistry

[@stepbystepscience]

nuclear chemistry

[@chandansingh4443]

Nuclear robot mom's daddy in galaxy...c

[@orchid28]

Uhhhhhh 😵‍💫😑😬🙄 why don’t you explain that in English?! Not everyone is gonna understand that equation!!! So, how exactly do you carbon date inanimate objects like rock or Earth… samples from moon??????

[@ToYouther]

Thanks

[@stepbystepscience]

Welcome