For which of the following problems would a scientist most likely use carbon-14?

Question 17 options:

to calculate the age of the Earth's oldest rocks

to calculate the age of a piece of bone

to identify the elements that make up a rock

to identify the elements that make up a bone

To calculate the age of a piece of bone

Explanation:

Carbon 14 is an isotope of carbon that is unstable and decays into Nitrogen 14 by emitting an electron. The decay rate of radioactive material is normally expressed in terms of its "half-life" (the time required by half the radioactive nuclei of a sample to undergo radioactive decay). The nice thing about carbon 14 is that its "half-life" is about 5730 years, which gives a nice reference to measure the age of fossils that are some thousand years old.

Carbon 14 dating is used to determine the age of objects that have been living organisms long ago. They measure how much carbon 14 is left in the object after years of decaying without having exchange with the ambient via respiration, ingestion, absorption, etc. and therefore having renewed the normal amount of carbon 14 that is in the ambient.

A rock is not a living organism, so its age cannot be determined by carbon 14 dating.