Question

A human skeleton is found in an archeological dig. Carbon dating is implemented to determine how old the skeleton is by using the equation y= e^-0.0001210t , where y is the percent of radiocarbon remaining when the skeleton is t years old.

If there is 30% radiocarbon today how old is the skeleton?

My answer: e^-0.0001210t • 48000=0.300 or 30.0%??

Did I do this correctly? If not can some help me/ explain where I went wrong

Answer 1

You need to solve
e^-0.0001210t = 0.30

now, t=48000 is the answer, so your equation should be
e^(-0.0001210 • 48000) = 0.30
The "t" is now gone, since that's what you solved for.

so I guess you did it right ... Guess, because you didn't show your actual calculation.