Name Per
Date
Algebra 2 Honors Extra Credit - After Ch 4
1) In living organic material, the ratio of the number of radioactive carbon isotopes
(carbon-14) to the number of non-radioactive carbon isotopes (carbon-12) is about
i to 10!? When organic material dies, its carbon-12 content remains fixed whereas
its radioactive carbon-14 begins to decay with a half-life of about 5700 years.
To estimate the age of dead organic material, scientists use the following formula
which denotes the ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12 present at any time / (in years).
R=
e 8223
1012
Estimate the age of a newly discovered fossil in which the ratio of carbon-14 to carbon -12 is
1013