Carbon-14, C-14, 14 C or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic matter is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and colleagues (1949) to date archaeological, geological and hydrogeological samples.

Feb 20, 2025 · Carbon-14, the longest-lived radioactive isotope of carbon, whose decay allows the accurate dating of archaeological artifacts from 500 to 50,000 years old. Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,730 years.

Mar 13, 2025 · Carbon-14 dating, method of age determination that depends upon the decay to nitrogen of radiocarbon (carbon-14). Carbon-14 is continually formed in nature by the interaction of neutrons with nitrogen-14 in the Earth’s atmosphere. Learn more about carbon-14 dating in …

Carbon-14 is a radioisotope of the chemical element carbon, which has 8 neutrons in its atomic nucleus in addition to the element-specific 6 protons; the sum of the number of these atomic nucleus building blocks results in a mass number of 14.

Carbon-14 is a commonly used radionuclide with a half-life of 5,730 years, emitting only beta particles with a maximum energy of 0.156 MeV (Million Electron Volts) and an average energy of 0.049 MeV. The beta particles from C-14 travel a maximum of 22 cm.

Oct 20, 2023 · Carbon-14 dating works by comparing the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-14 in a sample to that in a living organism, allowing for the determination of the age of formerly living things fairly precisely.

Carbon C-14 is an unstable isotope of carbon created when a neutron collides with a nitrogen atom, causing capture of the neutron and release of the proton converting nitrogen to a carbon with fourteen nucleons (6 protons and 8 neutrons). Carbon-14 emits beta particles as it decays and reverts back to nitrogen.

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 …

Radiocarbon dating, or carbon-14 dating, is a scientific method that can accurately determine the age of organic materials as old as approximately 60,000 years. First developed in the late 1940s at the University of Chicago by Willard Libby, the technique is …

The only cosmogenic radionuclide to make a significant contribution to the internal exposure of humans is carbon-14. Radioactive carbon-14 has a half-life of 5730 years and undergoes β− decay, where the neutron is converted into a proton, an electron, and an electron antineutrino: Beta-decay of C-14 nucleus. Despite this short half-life ...