Radiocarbon dating how it works

Radiocarbon Dating

Covering a story? Visit our page for journalists or call Learn more here. Radiocarbon dating, or carbon dating, is a scientific method that can accurately determine the age of organic materials as old as approximately 60, years. First developed in the late s at the University of Chicago by Willard Libby, the technique is based on the decay of the carbon isotope. The invention of radiocarbon dating elegantly merged chemistry and physics to develop a scientific method that can accurately determine the age of organic materials as old as approximately 60, years.

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UC Berkeley. Geologists use radiometric dating to estimate how long ago rocks formed, and to infer the ages of fossils contained within those rocks. The universe is full of naturally occurring radioactive elements.

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Radiocarbon dating can easily establish that humans have been on the earth for over twenty thousand years, at least twice as long as creationists are willing to allow. Therefore it should come as no surprise that creationists at the Institute for Creation Research ICR have been trying desperately to discredit this method for years. They have their work cut out for them, however, because radiocarbon C dating is one of the most reliable of all the radiometric dating methods. This article will answer several of the most common creationist attacks on carbon dating, using the question-answer format that has proved so useful to lecturers and debaters.

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How Carbon Dating Works

You probably have seen or read news stories about fascinating ancient artifacts. An archaeologist finds a child mummy high in the Andes and says the child lived more than 2, years ago. How do scientists know how old an object or human remains are? What methods do they use and how do these methods work?

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