This device estimates the age of natural supplies by analyzing the remaining quantity of a radioactive isotope of carbon. For instance, a bit of wooden from an historical construction may be analyzed to find out when the tree was felled. This course of depends on the recognized decay charge of carbon-14 and requires inputting the measured quantity of the isotope remaining within the pattern.
Archaeologists, paleontologists, and different researchers make the most of this method to ascertain chronologies of previous occasions and perceive the timing of key developments in human historical past and the pure world. By offering a comparatively exact timeframe for natural artifacts, this technique revolutionized the examine of the previous, enabling a extra correct understanding of the event of civilizations, ecosystems, and the planet itself. Previous to its growth, courting historic artifacts typically relied on much less exact strategies, similar to stylistic evaluation or stratigraphic layering.