Carbon dating requires advanced machinery.
Fossilized organisms, or anything that was once living, is dated by measuring the emission of carbon-14 (C14). By comparing the amount of C14 preserved in the specimen to other living organisms, a scientist determines the age of the sample. Expensive tools and professional know-how are needed to date organic matter with carbon dating. But students and science enthusiasts alike will find a basic knowledge of dating processes helpful when studying archeology and anthropology.
Instructions
1. Fire up the spectrometer. An Accelerator Mass Spectrometer weighs around 8,000 lbs. and costs over $2 million, so don't expect to find one lying around the house. This is the first step a scientist takes when preparing to date a piece of aged organic matter. If you are planning a science project investigating different methods of dating, start collecting samples for your project. Arrowheads found on hillsides, pieces of old pottery and rock samples are a good examples of items to use in a project.
2. Prepare the sample. Samples are easily contaminated by improper handling. When the specimens are removed from their original environment, they are wrapped and stored in carefully monitored containers. At the lab, samples are prepped on petri dishes by glove-toting lab techs. They are studied using numerous tools, such as microscopes. Samples are then placed inside the spectrometer for carbon counting. Use an example specimen in a science project. Plastic petri dishes are available in science kits and educational shops. Set up various false test samples to act as models that science fair attendees are able to touch.
3. Measure carbon levels. Radioactive carbon is the product of a collision between nitrogen 14 and atomic rays in the atmosphere. As a result C14 is released into the air and absorbed by plants. Humans and animals intake C14 through consumption of plants and other organic materials. C14 is then emitted from the organism at a constant rate. After the organism dies, C14 emission slowly decreases, very slowly. The spectrometer measures how many radioactive waves are emitted from the specimen per gram, per minute. The older the specimen, the lower the C14 measurement.
A science student is able to illustrate the use of carbon measurements with a chart. Use your fake specimens as examples of how a material is dated. For example, the carbon emission from something recently deceased is 15, where as something dead over 5,000 years will be around 6.5 to 7. Label each false sample with its C14 emission number.
4. Narrow down the date. Carbon dating is the most accurate method of dating long-dead organic matter, but it is far from perfect. Use other forms of investigation to make an educated estimate of the date. Gather information from the area where the specimen was found to help determine the source. Visual analysis, especially in artifacts collected from archeological sites, will also assist in dating the samples.
Use imagined circumstances around each false sample to justify its C14 age. Use this to illustrate how a scientist uses myriad research to date one, small fragment of earth's history.
Tags: organic matter, Carbon dating, each false, each false sample, emitted from, false sample
