Question

Carbon-14 is an isotope used in carbon dating. The nucleus becomes Nitrogen-14 through beta decay. Its half-life is 5370 years. We can use this information to think about the large sample of 14C that is part of all organic matter. We can also think about the fate of a single 14C nucleus, as we did above. a) What information does the half-life give you for a given large sample of 14C nuclei

Answer 1

If the half-life of 14C is 5730 years, when this period of time has passed it will have been halved, it is called the exponential decay law of radioactive isotopes.