Question

Carbon-14 has a radioactive half-life of 5700 years. If an organism has 11.24 g of carbon-14 in its body at the time of its death, how much carbon 14 will remain after 6350 years?

Answer 1

Answer:

= 5.193 g

Explanation:

Half life is the time taken by a radioactive element to decay by half its original amount. Therefore, since half life of carbon-14 is 5700 years, then it would take 5700 years for a sample of carbon-14 to decay by half of its original amount.

Using the formula;

New mass = Original mass × (1/2)^n, where n is the number of half lives.

n = Period taken/Half life = 6350 years/5700 years =1.114

Therefore;

New mass = 11.24 × (1/2)^1.114

                 = 5.193 g

Hence, a mass of 5.193 g of Carbon-14 would remain after 6350 years.