Question

You are given a very old sample of wood. How will you determine its age?

Answer 1

The age of the wood sample can be determined by radiocarbon dating as ¹⁴C becomes a part of a plant due to the photosynthesis reaction (i.e., absorption of  [¹⁴CO₂ + ¹²CO₂].

1. The activity (N) of a given wood sample and that of a fresh sample of the live plant (N₀) is measured, where, N₀ denotes the activity of the given sample at the time of death.
2. The age of the given wood sample, can be determined by applying following Formulae:
   t = `2.303/lambda log_10  "N"_0/"N"`
   where `lambda = 0.693/(5730 "y") = 1.21 xx 10^-4 "y"^-1`