Discussion:
Radioactive Dating Methods of Three Isotopes
For Uranium-235, Thorium-232 and Samarium-147:
1) How long is its half-life?
2) How long will it take for there to be 25 percent of original radioactive product left?
3) What material is it best used for?
4) What are the disadvantages and advantages of using this element for dating?
5) Describe the process of decay it undergoes.
6) What is the stable daughter product?
Finally, find the half-life of carbon-14 in order to plot the decay of carbon-14 in terms of half-lives. You will need to create a line graph where "Number of Half-Lives" will be on the x-axis and your "Amount of Isotope Remaining (g)" is on the y-axis.