Question

y carbon dating is done and why

Answer 1

Carbon is one of the chemical elements. Along with hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur, carbon is a building block of biochemical molecules ranging from fats, proteins, and carbohydrates to active substances such as hormones. All carbon atoms have a nucleus containing six protons. Ninety-nine percent of these also contain six neutrons. The 6 proton + 6 neutron atoms are said to have a mass of 12 and are referred to as "carbon-12." The nuclei of the remaining one percent of carbon atoms contain not six but either seven or eight neutronsin addition to the standard six protons. They have masses of 13 and 14 respectively and are referred to as"carbon-13" and "carbon-14."If two atoms have equal numbers of protons but differing numbers of neutrons, one is said to be an"isotope" of the other. Carbon-13 and carbon-14 are thus isotopes of carbon-12. Isotopes participate in thesame chemical reactions but often at differing rates. When isotopes are to be designated specifically, the chemical symbol is expanded to identify the mass (for example,13C)