Carbon-14 dating, also called radiocarbon dating, method of age determination that depends upon the decay to nitrogen of radiocarbon (carbon-14).

What is carbon-14 dating called?

Radiocarbon Dating What is Radiocarbon Dating? Radiocarbon dating is a method that provides objective age estimates for carbon-based materials that originated from living organisms. An age could be estimated by measuring the amount of carbon-14 present in the sample and comparing this against an internationally used reference standard.

Is Carbon 13 used in carbon dating?

Radiocarbon dating uses carbon isotopes. Radiocarbon dating relies on the carbon isotopes carbon-14 and carbon-12. Scientists are looking for the ratio of those two isotopes in a sample. Most carbon on Earth exists as the very stable isotope carbon-12, with a very small amount as carbon-13.