Use this paragraph: The half-life of carbon-14 is 5,700 years. A certain sample of wood has 20 grams of carbon-14 when it is alive. How many grams of carbon will it have after 5,700 years? (1 point) Responses 2 grams 2 grams 10 grams 10 grams 5 grams 5 grams 40 grams
After 5,700 years, the half-life of carbon-14, the certain sample of wood will have 10 grams of carbon.
To find out how many grams of carbon-14 the wood sample will have after 5,700 years, we need to calculate the remaining amount using the concept of half-life.
The half-life of carbon-14 is 5,700 years, which means that after each half-life period, the amount of carbon-14 reduces by half.
Since the wood sample starts with 20 grams of carbon-14 when it is alive, after the first half-life (5,700 years), it will have half of that amount, which is 10 grams.
After the second half-life (another 5,700 years), the remaining 10 grams will be halved again, resulting in 5 grams.
Therefore, after 5,700 years, the wood sample will have 5 grams of carbon-14.
To answer this question, we need to understand the concept of half-life and how it applies to carbon-14.
The half-life of carbon-14 is the amount of time it takes for half of a given sample to decay or break down. In this case, the half-life of carbon-14 is stated to be 5,700 years.
Now, let's calculate the amount of carbon-14 remaining after 5,700 years:
1. Start with the initial amount of carbon-14, which is 20 grams.
2. Since the half-life of carbon-14 is 5,700 years, after one half-life (5,700 years), half of the original amount will remain. Therefore, we divide 20 grams by 2, resulting in 10 grams.
3. After two half-lives (11,400 years), another half of the remaining 10 grams will decay, leaving us with 5 grams.
4. Now, after three half-lives (17,100 years), half of the remaining 5 grams will decay again, resulting in a final measurement of 2.5 grams.
So, the correct answer to the question is not provided in the given options. After 5,700 years, the sample of wood will have approximately 2.5 grams of carbon-14 remaining.