What types of materials are best for radiometric dating?

Radiocarbon is useful for relatively young, carbon-based materials; other longer-lived isotopes are good for older rocks and minerals. Different isotope pairs are useful for certain materials of certain ages.

Which isotope is most commonly used in radioactive dating?

carbon-14 dating One of the most familiar types of radioactive dating is carbon-14 dating. Carbon-14 forms naturally in Earths atmosphere when cosmic rays strike atoms of nitrogen-14. Living things take in and use carbon-14, just as they do carbon-12.

What is radioactive dating based on?

Radiometric dating, often called radioactive dating, is a technique used to determine the age of materials such as rocks. It is based on a comparison between the observed abundance of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope and its decay products, using known decay rates.

What type of radiation is used in radiocarbon dating?

Radiocarbon or Carbon-14 dating is a technique used by scientist to date bones, wood, paper and cloth. Carbon-14 is a radioisotope of Carbon. It is produced in the Earths upper atmosphere when Nitrogen-14 is broken down to form the unstable Carbon-14 by the action of cosmic rays.