SOLUTION: A paleontologist discovers a fossil and wishes to determine its age. This can be done by measuring the amount of carbon-14 that is contained in the fossil. It is known that the d

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Question 138992: A paleontologist discovers a fossil and wishes to determine its age. This can be done by measuring the amount of carbon-14 that is contained in the fossil. It is known that the decay of carbon-14 can be modeled with the exponential decay function . The paleontologist discovers that the fossil contains 70% of its original amount of carbon-14. Assume that the half-life of carbon-14 is 5600 years and determine the age of the fossil.
Answer by scott8148(6628) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
let t=age __ 100%-70%=(1/2)^(t/5600)

taking log __ log(.3)=(t/5600)(log(.5))

dividing by log(.5) __ log(.3)/log(.5)=t/5600

multiplying by 5600 __ 5600[log(.3)/log(.5)]=t