Carbon 14 By: Mariana Sanz 8.8 Isotopes are atoms of from the same element with a different mass number as a result of having different amounts of neutrons in the nucleus. This doesn’t affect the element at all the only things that change are the weight and if is stable or radioactive (that it will decay throughout the years). Carbon 14, carbon 12 and carbon 13 are the isotopes of carbon; the most common one is carbon 12 and is the one written in the periodic table. Carbon 14 is the least common carbon isotope in our bodies, of all the carbon atoms in the human body only 0.01% of them are carbon 14, its mass number is 14 with 6 protons and 8 neutrons. This atom is the only radioactive isotope of carbon (although it autodestruct it is nothing …show more content…
From the moment we die the amount of carbon-14 starts to decrease and turns to nitrogen, this means the longer dead things are, the lower the carbon-14 levels archaeologists will find. Over time the radiocarbon technique has been getting better and the last piece of technology invented is the accelerator spectrometer which make it easier to identify the age of the object being tested. Carbon 14 is still creating because if not there wouldn’t be any of it left in the world. It is produced when the upper atmosphere of earth is hit by many protons traveling at the speed of light, when does protons hit neutrons and then hit a nitrogen atom, the nitrogen atom expulse a proton making the atoms become a carbon atom with “two extra neutrons.” Although carbon dating is admirable accomplishment, it has a few limitations. Firstly he method of carbon 14 can only be used on objects that were alive because, non-living things can´t replace the atoms that decay over time, as plants do with photosynthesis and humans/ animals by eating. Secondly for the technique to work the archeologists have to test a large amount of the sample because it helps find more atoms. Thirdly, carbon dating is not very accurate, the results can´t be confirmed and the answer is a range of years not an exact one. Last, carbon 14 only can tell the age of just 50,000 years back if something is older scientist haven´t found a way to know the