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Carbon dating is useful for old bones and wood because carbon-14 has a half-life that is:
AExactly one thousand years
BLonger than uranium 238
CLong enough to survive
DFar too short to use
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: C. Long enough to survive
1. A dating method needs an isotope that decays on the timescale being measured.
2. Because the half-life of carbon-14 is long, it is used to date formerly living objects such as old bones or wood.
3. That half-life is about 5,730 years, which suits archaeological timescales.
4. Uranium-238 has a half-life of 1.25 billion years, far longer, which suits dating rocks instead.
_Source: OpenStax Biology for AP(R) Courses (CC BY 4.0), Ch 2 'The Chemical Foundation of Life', sections 2.1-2.3_
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