A) a well preserved piece of wood found at an archaeological site has 43 % of the carbon-14 that it must have had when it was living. using the fact that carbon-14 has a half-life of 5700 years, calculate the age (in years) of this piece of wood.

b) a different piece of wood is found to have 9 % of the carbon-14 that it must have had when it was living. calculate its age (in years) and enter it in the box below.

a) 7034 years

b) 20070 years

Explanation:

Expression for rate law for first order kinetics is given by:

where,

k = rate constant  

t = age of sample

a = let initial amount of the reactant  = 100

a - x = amount left after decay process  

Given half life = 5700 years

a) 43 % of carbon-14

Thus the age of this piece of wood is 7034 years

b) 9 % of the carbon-14

Thus the age of this piece of wood is 20070 years

the correct answer is true