Question: Why is radiocarbon dating not used for older specimens?

Why can we not use carbon dating for things older than 60000 years old?

Inorganic materials cant be dated using radiocarbon analysis, and the method can be prohibitively expensive. Age is also a problem: Samples that are older than about 40,000 years are extremely difficult to date due to tiny levels of carbon-14. Over 60,000 years old, and they cant be dated at all.

Why cant we use carbon-14 dating radiocarbon to determine the age of a 65 million year old dinosaur bone?

But carbon-14 dating wont work on dinosaur bones. The half-life of carbon-14 is only 5,730 years, so carbon-14 dating is only effective on samples that are less than 50,000 years old. To determine the ages of these specimens, scientists need an isotope with a very long half-life.

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