Radiocarbon dating is a method that provides objective age estimates for carbon-based materials that originated from living organisms. An age could be estimated by measuring the amount of carbon-14 present in the sample and comparing this against an internationally used reference standard.

Why is carbon used in radiometric dating?

Radiocarbon dating uses carbon isotopes. Carbon-14 is an unstable isotope of carbon that will eventually decay at a known rate to become carbon-12. Because the cosmic ray bombardment is fairly constant, theres a near-constant level of carbon-14 to carbon-12 ratio in Earths atmosphere.

How is radiometric dating used?

Geologists use radiometric dating to estimate how long ago rocks formed, and to infer the ages of fossils contained within those rocks. The universe is full of naturally occurring radioactive elements. Radioactive atoms are inherently unstable; over time, radioactive parent atoms decay into stable daughter atoms.

Why do we use carbon dating?

Carbon-14 dating is a way of determining the age of certain archeological artifacts of a biological origin up to about 50,000 years old. It is used in dating things such as bone, cloth, wood and plant fibers that were created in the relatively recent past by human activities.

What is the current accepted age of Earth?

4.54 billion years old Earth is estimated to be 4.54 billion years old, plus or minus about 50 million years.