🕰️ What Is Carbon Dating?

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🌿 What is carbon dating?

Carbon dating is a way scientists find out how old something is — like:

• Bones 🦴
• Wood 🌳
• Cloth 👕
• Ancient tools 🗿

👉 It works only on things that were once alive.

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⚛️ What is carbon?

• Carbon is an element found in all living things
• There are different types of carbon
• One special type is called Carbon-14

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🫁 While living…

• Plants take in carbon from air 🌱
• Animals eat plants or other animals 🐄
• So all living things have Carbon-14 inside them

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⚰️ After death…

• When a plant or animal dies:
  • It stops taking in carbon
  • Carbon-14 slowly disappears (decays)

⏳ This happens at a known speed

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⏱️ How scientists tell the age

1️⃣ Measure how much Carbon-14 is left
2️⃣ Compare it with living things
3️⃣ Calculate how long it has been decaying

👉 Less Carbon-14 = older object

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🧮 Important number (easy to remember)

• Carbon-14 half-life = 5,730 years
• Every 5,730 years, half of it disappears

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📏 What carbon dating can and cannot do

✔️ Can date:

• Up to about 50,000 years old
• Living things from the past

❌ Cannot date:

• Rocks ❌
• Metals ❌
• Very old dinosaurs ❌ (too old!)

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🌟 Fun facts for kids

• Used to date mummies
• Used in archaeology
• Helps learn human history

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🧠 Easy way to remember

Carbon dating is like a natural clock inside living things

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📌 One-line summary

Carbon dating finds the age of dead plants and animals by measuring how much Carbon-14 is left.

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