Welcome to Mrs. Young's calculus class blog! Each week, I will start a new post. Students, you can write questions for me or chat with each other about how to solve a particular problem. As part of your class participation grade each week, every student must comment at least once to my post or another student's comment. I look forward to spending this year with you. Enjoy!

Sunday, February 24, 2013

February 25th - March 1st

I was a bit disappointed with your blog posts last week. Only about half the class responded. We are going to finish up section 6.4 this week, which is all about exponential growth and decay, half-life, and carbon-14 dating. It is an application of our separable differential equations. It is really cool! Watch the video to the right and explain in your own words anything that you know about carbon-14 dating.
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10 comments:

  1. jacob eversoleFebruary 25, 2013 at 12:14 PM

    The carbon atom is unique because it can combine with other carbon atoms. The carbon atom has 6 proton and neutrons in the neutron but some have an extra neutron. Carbon with the extra neutron is called carbon 13. Carbon 14's nucleus is unsteady.

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  2. SarahDunn2013February 26, 2013 at 1:48 PM

    This type of carbon atom has two extra neutrons in the nucleus. This means that it has 14 particles in its nucleus and explains the title of the atom. Living organisms have a constant ratio of regular carbon atoms and carbon-14 atoms in their bodies that only start to radioactively decay once the organism has died. By studying the half life of this element and then determining how much of the substance is left in a sample, scientists can determine how old a once living object is without having written record of its life or existence.

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  3. BenIvanFebruary 27, 2013 at 10:24 AM

    carbon is a very important element. almost everything is partially made of carbon. carbon 14 dating is a chemical analysis used to determine the age of organic things based on their content of different things.

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  4. Isaac BarringerFebruary 27, 2013 at 10:36 AM

    Carbon 14 dating is used to measure the amount of carbon in a substance to determine the age of the substance, like my chicken coop.

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  5. UnknownFebruary 27, 2013 at 1:27 PM

    The carbon is unique element so the carbons can combine each other. The carbon 14 dating start to decy once the organism in bodies. The basic radioactive decay is the amount of carbon 14 dating in the differential equation.

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  6. UnknownFebruary 28, 2013 at 7:00 AM

    Carbon start to decay when the organism dies, so you can count the amount of Carbon for assuming the age of something. It is carbon 14 dating.

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  7. Carly CannonFebruary 28, 2013 at 8:38 AM

    When a living organism starts to decay the carbon 14 atoms decrease. After about 5,000 years the amount of carbon 14 in an deceased organism is half that of the original amount. Carbon 14 dating is used to estimate the time at which an organism died based on the amount of carbon 14 that is missing from the original amount.

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  8. Daniel BurketFebruary 28, 2013 at 1:34 PM

    Carbon-14 is a rare form of carbon, an element which is essential to life. Once an animal dies, it does not take in any more Carbon-14. This Carbon-14 decays much more than the regular carbon. Scientists can estimate how long ago something died by looking at the ratio between carbon-14 and regular carbon.

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  9. AnonymousMarch 1, 2013 at 9:24 AM

    Carbon-14 is used to determine the age of a dead organism. Once the organism has died carbon-14 starts to decay and you can see the difference in ratio of carbon to carbon-14. The half-life formula is used to determine this age.

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  10. rachel schillingMarch 1, 2013 at 1:11 PM

    The carbon atom can combine with other carbon atoms and help make up living things. Carbon-14 is identical to regular carbon, but it is unstable so it decays back into nitrogen. Living beings have an equal ratio of carbon to carbon-14 until they die, at which point the carbon-14 atoms begin to decay. This allows scientists to figure out how long something has been dead.

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