Question

A paleontologist finds an unidentified bone. In the laboratory, she finds that the Carbon-14 found in the bone is ⅓ of that found in living bone tissue. How old is the bone? Round to the nearest whole number.

Answer 1

If the half-life of carbon is n years, then

(1/2)^(t/n) = 1/3
t/n log(1/2) = log(1/3)
t/n = log3/log2 ≈ 1.58

so, about 1.58 half-lives