Sania Bhamani
The process of radiocarbon dating and how scientists use it.
1/20/19
SCI 3
Radiocarbon dating is a very important process for scientist. We really wouldn’t know much information about ancient artifacts if carbon dating was not around. To figure out how this process is actually used, we need to know what radiocarbon dating is, who made up this process and why is it important today.
Radiocarbon dating is a process that scientist use to figure out the age for an object by using a radioactive isotope of carbon. An isotope is two or more forms of an element. Scientists started to use radiocarbon dating to figure out parts of history with their age such as extinct species, plants, and many other artifacts we might not know about. The technology that they have used to discover artifacts has come a long way from when radiocarbon dating was first discovered.
This process was founded by Willard Libby. He was an American Chemist who discovered this process in 1946. Because of this, he was able to prove many things, such as, the Ice age wasn’t 25,000 years ago, but 10,000 years ago and the Shroud of Turin, the cloth that is known to cover the body of Jesus Christ, was shown that the cloth was made in the years between 1260 and 1390. Ever since Libby has created this process, many people have commended him by many awards, including The Nobel Peace Prize, which was given to him in 1960.
This process is important to all scientist today because it helped them to figure out the dates and times of when each calendar started. For instance, the birth of Christ was considered the start of their calendar. The Olympic games in 776 BC is considered the start of the Greek’s calendar. The Prophet’s departure from Makka or Hajj in 622 AD is considered the started of the Muslim Calendar. Scientists were able to figure most of this out by using Radiocarbon dating.
In Conclusion, radiocarbon dating has changed our world in so many different ways. If it weren’t for radiocarbon dating, we wouldn’t have been able to progress as far as we did today.
Willard Libby- The one who found
the process of radiocarbon dating.
Archaeologists were able to find many artifacts like these
due to the help of radiocarbon dating
This type of technology is used to figure out where the artifacts are located.
Credits: https://earthsky.org/earth/what-is-radiocarbon-dating
https://shumla.org/category/radiocarbon-dating/
https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=24000
https://www.livescience.com/32291-how-do-scientists-date-ancient-things.html
https://blog.agilent.com/2016/12/15/the-story-of-radiocarbon-dating/
https:// www.britannica.com/biography/Willard-Libbyhttps:https://bogology.org/how-we-do-it/dating-methods/radiocarbon-dating