Uses of isotopes in radioactive dating Sextalk bot website
25-Sep-2020 01:05
Eggs and some meat, such as beef, pork, and poultry, can also be irradiated.
Contrary to the belief of some people, irradiation of food make the food itself radioactive.
We know these steps because researchers followed the progress of the radioactive carbon-14 throughout the process.
Radioactive isotopes are useful for establishing the ages of various objects.
If a once-living artifact is discovered and analyzed many years after its death, with the remaining carbon-14 compared to the known constant level, an approximate age of the artifact can be determined.
Using such methods, scientists determined that the age of the Shroud of Turin (made of linen, which comes from the flax plant, and purported by some to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ; Figure 11.3 "Shroud of Turin") is about 600–700 y, not 2,000 y as claimed by some.
The half-life of radioactive isotopes is unaffected by any environmental factors, so the isotope acts like an internal clock.
For example, if a rock is analyzed and is found to contain a certain amount of uranium-235 and a certain amount of its daughter isotope, we can conclude that a certain fraction of the original uranium-235 has radioactively decayed.
Bones, the heart, the brain, the liver, the lungs, and many other organs can be imaged in similar ways by using the appropriate radioactive isotope.After incorporating radioactive atoms into reactant molecules, scientists can track where the atoms go by following their radioactivity.