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 5 grams 5 grams 2 grams 2 grams 10 grams 10 grams 40 grams
The correct response is: 10 grams.
To determine the grams of carbon-14 that the wood sample will have after 5,700 years, we need to calculate the remaining amount based on its half-life.
1. Start with the initial amount of carbon-14 in the wood sample, which is 20 grams.
2. The half-life of carbon-14 is 5,700 years. This means that after 5,700 years, half of the initial amount will decay.
3. Calculate half of the initial amount: 20 grams divided by 2 = 10 grams.
4. After 5,700 years, the wood sample will have 10 grams of carbon-14 remaining.
Therefore, the correct answer is 10 grams.
To calculate the amount of carbon-14 remaining after a given time period, you can use the concept of half-life. The half-life of carbon-14 is 5,700 years, which means that after every 5,700 years, half of the carbon-14 in a sample will decay.
In this case, the initial amount of carbon-14 is given as 20 grams when the wood is alive. Since the half-life is 5,700 years, after the first 5,700 years, half of the carbon-14 will decay and we will be left with 10 grams.
Now, if we consider another 5,700 years, another half will decay, and we will have half of 10 grams remaining, which is 5 grams.
Therefore, after 5,700 years, the wood sample will have 5 grams of carbon-14 remaining. So the correct answer is 5 grams.