Rating and dating definition

Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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By measuring the amount of carbon-14 left in the organism, it's possible to work out how old it is.

This technique works well for materials up to around 50,000 years old.

However, once the organism dies, the amount of carbon-14 steadily decreases.THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries.Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.Because of the carbon cycle, there is always carbon-14 present in both the air and in living organisms.Once the organism dies, the amount of carbon-14 reduces by the fixed half-life - or the time required for half of the original sample of radioactive nuclei to decay - of 5,730 years, and can be measured by scientists for up to 10 half-lives.