carbon 14 dating: meaning, definition, pronunciation and examples

Only materials that were once part of a living organism and contain carbon, such as wood, bone, leather, charcoal, and shells.

It measures the amount of radioactive carbon-14 remaining in a sample. Living organisms absorb carbon-14 from the atmosphere. When they die, absorption stops, and the carbon-14 decays at a known rate. By comparing the remaining amount to the expected original amount, scientists can calculate the time since death.

Carbon-14 dating is one specific type of radiometric dating. Radiometric dating is a broader category that includes methods using other radioactive isotopes, like potassium-argon dating, which can date much older rocks.

Accuracy can be affected by contamination of the sample, changes in atmospheric carbon-14 levels over time (which is why calibration curves are used), and the fact that the method becomes unreliable for very small amounts of carbon-14 in samples older than ~50,000 years.

A scientific method for determining the age of organic materials by measuring the decay of the radioactive isotope carbon-14.

Carbon 14 dating is usually academic, scientific, technical in register.

Carbon 14 dating: in British English it is pronounced /ˌkɑː.bən ˌfɔː.tiːn ˈdeɪ.tɪŋ/, and in American English it is pronounced /ˌkɑːr.bən ˌfɔːr.tiːn ˈdeɪ.t̬ɪŋ/. Tap the audio buttons above to hear it.