Physics A-Level
Carbon-14 and half-life
What Carbon-14 and half-life means in Physics A-Level, as defined for OCR.
Definition of Carbon-14 and half-life
Check what you remember
Read the wording for your board, then hide it and explain Carbon-14 and half-life in your own words. Rough notes are fine. This is a self-check, with no mark or grade.
Reference: OCR
While alive, organisms keep a roughly constant carbon-14 proportion; after death it decays with a half-life of about 5730 years.
Topics that use Carbon-14 and half-life
- Radioactivity (OCR A-Level)
Related terms
- Absorber
- Alpha decay
- Beta-minus decay
- Beta-plus decay
- Corrected count rate
- Decay constant
- Experimental measurement of half-life
- Exponential decay
Using Carbon-14 and half-life in the exam
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