Problema Solution
Charcoal drawings were discovered on walls and ceilings in a cave in Lascaux, France. Determine the approximate age of the drawings, if it was found that 86% of C-14 in a piece of charcoal found in the cave had decayed through radioactivity.
Answer provided by our tutors
assume the half-life of C-14 is 5730 years
14% remains
0.14=(1/2)^n
n=log(.14)/log(.5)=2.83650
approximate date of the drawing, assuming constant rate of decay: 2.83650 * 5730 = 16253 years