I was the same person from yesterday. I need help on a question. I don't type very good so I have one of my host family do it for me. so please help us.

Suppose you have a sample of clamshell at a Paleoindian site and you measure the 14C activity of a 100-gram sample of carbon as 320 disintegrations per minute (or 3.2 disintegrations per gram of carbon per minute).

a.What was the activity (in disintegrations per second) for the 100-gram sample at the time it formed?

wouldnt that be 3.2?

b. What is the age of the sample?
well I came up with
t=(1/.693)ln(
I can't figure out what the other numbers should be.

t=(1/lambda)ln(N0/Nt)

TRY GETTING HELP FORM ONE OF YOUR COLLEGE CLASSMATES OR YOUR PROFESSOR

I can definitely help you with your questions! Let's break it down step by step.

a. To find the activity in disintegrations per second for the 100-gram sample at the time it formed, we need to convert the given activity from disintegrations per minute to disintegrations per second.

Since there are 60 seconds in a minute, we can multiply the given activity of 3.2 disintegrations per gram of carbon per minute by 60 to get the activity in disintegrations per gram of carbon per second.

3.2 disintegrations per gram of carbon per minute * 60 seconds per minute = 192 disintegrations per gram of carbon per second

Since we have a 100-gram sample, we need to multiply the disintegrations per gram of carbon per second by 100 to get the activity in disintegrations per second for the 100-gram sample.

192 disintegrations per gram of carbon per second * 100 grams = 19,200 disintegrations per second

Therefore, the activity for the 100-gram sample at the time it formed is 19,200 disintegrations per second.

b. Now, let's move on to finding the age of the sample using the formula you mentioned:

t = (1/λ) * ln(N0/Nt)

In this formula:
t represents the age of the sample
λ (lambda) represents the decay constant (which depends on the half-life of the isotope)
N0 represents the initial number of radioactive atoms (usually given at the time the sample formed)
Nt represents the number of radioactive atoms remaining at the time of measurement (which is given)

In this case, we don't have specific values for N0 or Nt, but we do know the activity at the time it formed (which is proportional to N0) and the current activity (which is proportional to Nt).

The key concept to understand here is that the activity of a sample decreases over time as the radioactive atoms decay. The rate of decay is related to the half-life of the isotope.

To further calculate the age of the sample, we would need additional information such as the half-life of carbon-14 (14C) and the specific values for N0 and Nt. Once we have those values, we can substitute them into the formula to find the age of the sample.

I hope this explanation helps you understand the process better. If you have any further questions or need clarification on anything, feel free to ask!