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darshanpatel
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Homework Statement
For living organic material, the ratio of the number of radioactive carbon isotopes (carbon-14) to the number of non-radioactive carbon isotopes (carbon-12) is about 1 to 10^12. When organic material dies, its carbon 12 content remains fixed whereas its radioactive carbon-14 bagins to decay with a half-life of about 5700 years. To estimate the age of dead organic material, scientists use the following formula which denotes the ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12 present at any time 't' (in years).
R=(1/10^12)e^(-t/8223)
Estimate the age of newly discovered fossil in which the ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12 is 1/10^13
Homework Equations
-None-
The Attempt at a Solution
I just substituted one thing, I got confused, do I plug in 5,700 for 'R' or 11,400 for 'R' then solve?
From this: R=(1/10^12)e^(-t/8223)
To this: R=(1/10^13)e^(-t/8223)
That is as far as I got
Please help! Thanks