Archeologists have discovered a mummified corpse and they want to know how long ago she died. They determine that there is 25% C14 in her body. Use the reference diagram to determine how long ago she died. Explain your answer.
To determine the age of the mummified corpse, we can use the half-life of C14 to estimate when she died. Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5730 years, which means that after 5730 years, half of the original amount of C14 in a sample will have decayed.
Given that there is 25% C14 in the body of the mummified corpse, we can assume that the original amount of C14 would have been 100%. Since half of the C14 would decay every 5730 years, the remaining 25% of C14 corresponds to two half-lives of decay.
Therefore, we can calculate the age of the mummified corpse by multiplying 5730 years by 2 (the number of half-lives required to go from 100% to 25%):
5730 years/half-life * 2 half-lives = 11,460 years
Therefore, the mummified corpse died approximately 11,460 years ago.