Which radioactive isotope of carbon is widely used for radiocarbon dating to determine the age of archaeological and fossilized specimens?

💡 Solution & Explanation

Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope with a half-life of roughly 5,730 years, continually absorbed by living organisms until death, after which it decays at a predictable rate enabling radiocarbon dating of organic remains. Stable isotopes like carbon-12 and carbon-13 do not undergo radioactive decay, making them unsuitable for age determination using decay kinetics. Radiocarbon dating is a fundamental technique used in archaeology to date organic artifacts up to around fifty thousand years old.