Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,730 ± 40 years—i.e., half the amount of the radioisotope present at any given time will undergo spontaneous disintegration during the succeeding 5,730 years.

How long does it take for 50% of carbon-14 to decay?

about 5,700 years The half-life of carbon-14 is the amount of time it takes for one-half of the original amount to disappear by radioactive decay. This half-life is about 5,700 years and means that every 5,700 years the amount of carbon-14 in a fossil is only one-half of what it was 5,700 years ago.

How many years does it take for 90% of a carbon-14 specimen to decay?

The halflife of carbon 14 is 5730 ± 30 years, and the method of dating lies in trying to determine how much carbon 14 (the radioactive isotope of carbon) is present in the artifact and comparing it to levels currently present in the atmosphere.

How long does it take for half of carbon-14 to decay into nitrogen?

5730 years Whereas its cousins take mere minutes or hours to decay, only half of the carbon-14 component of a given substance is gone after 5730 years, having become nitrogen-14. This long half-life has made the isotope invaluable to archaeologists as a tool to determine the age of organic matter, whether plant or animal.