What element, found in all plants and animals, is used by scientists to determine approximate dates for an artifact’s age?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon
Hav u heard about "Carbon Dating"?
carbon
The element commonly used by scientists to determine approximate dates for an artifact's age is carbon. More specifically, it is the isotope carbon-14. Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope of carbon that is present in the Earth's atmosphere. Plants incorporate carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during photosynthesis, and animals acquire carbon-14 by consuming plants or other animals.
The concentration of carbon-14 in the atmosphere remains relatively constant over time until an organism dies. At that point, the intake of carbon-14 stops, and the isotope starts to decay. By measuring the remaining carbon-14 in a sample, scientists can estimate the age of the artifact or organism.
To determine the age of an artifact using carbon dating, scientists extract a small sample, typically organic material like wood, bone, or charcoal. They then measure the ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12 in the sample using a technique called accelerator mass spectrometry. This ratio provides an indication of how many years have passed since the death of the organism or the formation of the artifact.
It is important to note that carbon dating is suitable for dating artifacts up to around 50,000 years old. Beyond that, the concentration of carbon-14 becomes too low to provide accurate results, and other dating methods, such as uranium-lead dating, are used.