Question

A piece of wood from the ruins of an ancient building was found to have a ¹⁴C activity of 12 disintegrations per minute per gram of its carbon content. The ¹⁴C activity of the living wood is 16 disintegrations per minute per gram. How long ago did the tree, from which the wooden sample came, die? Given half-life of ¹⁴C is 5760 years.

Answer 1

`t = 1/λ` In `R_0/R`

= `5760/0.693` In `16/12 = 5760/0.693` In `4/3`

= `5760/0.693 xx 2.303 log  4/3` 

= 2391.12 years.