From the course: Complete Guide to Differential Equations Foundations for Data Science

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Carbon-14 dating

Carbon-14 dating

From the course: Complete Guide to Differential Equations Foundations for Data Science

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Carbon-14 dating

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- [Instructor] Let's continue with more practical applications. Let's explore how you can use differential equations with carbon-14 dating. Let's first review what carbon-14 dating is. Carbon-14 dating, also known as radiocarbon dating, is a scientific method that estimates the age of organic materials that have perished based on the amount of radioactive decay of the isotope carbon-14. Living organisms and other organic materials absorb carbon-14 throughout their lifetime, but the amount left in the organism after it passes slowly declines over time. So how do you calculate the amount of carbon-14 left in organic materials or organisms? You can do so with the following differential equation where you have d of capital N over dt equals negative k multiplied by capital N. In this equation, your time variable is represented by t, your rate of change of carbon-14 is represented by dN over dt, and the decay constant is represented by k. And finally, the amount of carbon-14 at time t is…

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