Carbon dating Essay

CARBON DATING



WHAT IS CARBON DATING?

Carbon dating is a method used to determine the age of an item with carbon content up to 60,000 years B.P. (Before Present). Carbon dating is only compared with B.P. and present is defined as year 1950 AD.

Carbon dating is a chemical analysis also known as radiocarbon dating. It is used to find the date of an object. It is only used for organic material. For fossils, a different method called radiometric dating is used.

Plants fix carbon dioxide (CO2) from the earth’s atmosphere in to material during photosynthesis. After plants die or they are consumed by other organisms the carbon content of the object decreases at an extremely alarming or high rate but whatever is left behind can be analyzed in the lab to tell the age of that item.

HISTORY OF CARBON DATING

Carbon dating was developed by Willard Libby and his colleagues at The University of Chicago in 1949. While experimenting, Willard used an ancient piece of wood form Egypt. In 1960, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for this fabulous piece of work.






WHAT INFORMATION CAN YOU FIND FROM CARBON DATING ?

Carbon dating is done in chemistry labs but used in the subject of archaeology. After carbon dating is done archaeologists can find a lot of information about the object like:

· The climate
· What it was used for
· When it was used
· Why it was used
· Who used it
· Where the object was kept
· The material used to make that object

WHY IS CARBON DATING USEFUL?

Carbon dating is very useful because we can compare objects and find out lots of information. For example; If I compare a pot of 1842 with a pot of 2008 I can tell the difference between material, soil, usage etc.

IS CARBON DATING VALID?

In carbon dating, there are complications in determining the age of the carbon containing item because of:
1. Changes in earth’s atmosphere:- The earth’s atmosphere is constantly changing .This makes the carbon content in the item keep changing.

2. Contamination of the item:- If there is decay or the place from where the item is collected is in a swampy or highly fertile area then the carbon dating analysis will be different. Also, bones can be mixed up with the item which automatically will change the carbon ratio.
CONCLUSION

Carbon dating is a very useful tool to determine the age of an item only if proper care is taken. Had there been no carbon dating we would have not known anything about history. I think carbon dating is so important that without it history would be a huge jigsaw puzzle with lots of missing pieces.


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