Carbon dating means __________.

The correct answer is a method of calculating the age of very old objects by measuring the amounts of different forms of carbon in them.

Key Points

• Carbon dating:
  • Carbon dating is a technique used to determine the approximate age of once-living materials.
  • It is also referred to as Radiocarbon dating.
  • Radiocarbon dating is a method of estimating the age of an artefact or biological vestige based on the relative amount of various isotopes of carbon present in a sample.
  • Age can be estimated by measuring the amount of carbon-14 present in the sample and comparing this against an internationally used reference standard.
  • Radiocarbon decays slowly in a living organism but once the organism dies, it ceases to absorb Carbon-14 so that the amount of the radiocarbon in the tissues steadily decreases.
  • Because carbon-14 decays at a constant rate, an estimate of the date at which an organism dies can be made by measuring the amount of its residual radiocarbon.
  • It was developed in the late 1940s by Williard Libby.
  • Carbon dating is one of the most effective tools in the archaeologist's kit.
  • It is a vital part of the investigation and preservation of our past.
  • The oldest dates that can be reliably measured by this process date to approximately 50,000 years.
  • Histories of archaeology often refer to its impact as the "radiocarbon revolution".
  • Radiocarbon dating has allowed key transitions in prehistory to be dated, such as the end of the last Ice Age, and the beginning of the Neolithic and Bronze Age in different regions.

Thus, we can say that Carbon dating is a method of calculating the age of very old objects by measuring the amounts of different forms of carbon in them.