PartA: The cloth shroud from around a mummy is found to have a 14C activity of 8.7 disintegrations per minute per gram of carbon as compared with living organisms that undergo 16.3 disintegrations per minute per gram of carbon. From the half-life for 14C decay, 5715 yr, calculate the age of the shroud.
PartB: Potassium-40 decays to argon-40 with a half-life of 1.27×109 yr. What is the age of a rock in which the mass ratio of 40Ar to 40K is 4.2?