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Why can Carbon-14 dating only be used for younger fossils?

April 26, 2017Biology carbon-14 dating fossils Mathematics Used younger

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Why can Carbon-14 dating only be used for younger fossils?

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The half-life of Carbon-14 is only approximately 5700 years. That means every 5700 years, only half the carbon-14 remains. Carbon-14 is not very common to begin with (less than 1% of carbon atoms), so as it decays there will be very little to detect.