This software estimates the age of natural supplies by analyzing the remaining quantity of a radioactive isotope of carbon. For instance, a chunk of wooden from an historic construction will be analyzed to find out when the tree was felled. This course of depends on the identified decay price 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 system 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 improvement, courting historic artifacts usually relied on much less exact strategies, resembling stylistic evaluation or stratigraphic layering.