Answer:
- <u><em>3.30 × 10³ years</em></u>
Explanation:
1) <u>Carbon-14 disintegration rate of a young (alive) tree</u>: 0.266 per second per gram.
2)<u> Carbon-14 disintegration rate of a wood sample prepeared from an object recovered at an archaelogical excavation (dead matter):</u> 0.178 per second per gram.
3) <u>Ratio of decay</u>: A/A₀ = 0.178 / 0.266 = 0.669
4) <u>Half-life equation</u>: A/A₀ = (1/2)ⁿ, where n is the number of half-lives since the object died.
5) <u>Substitute and solve for n</u>:
That means that 0.578 half-life has elapsed since the wood with which the object was created was dead matter.
6) <u>Convert number of half-lives to years</u>:
- 0.578 half-life × 5715 years/half-life = 3,303 years = 3.30 × 10³ years.