Carbon-14 has a relatively short half-life of 5730 years, meaning that the amount of carbon-14 in a sample is halved over the course of 5730 years due to radioactive decay.

What is a half-life for carbon-14?

5700 ± 30 yr Abstract. The half-life of radiocarbon (14C) is 5700 ± 30 yr, which makes it particularly useful for dating in archaeology. However, only an exceptional hindrance of the beta decay from 14C to 14N—a so-called Gamow-Teller ß-decay—makes this half-life so long.

How does carbon-14 dating work for kids?

Carbon dating is a way of telling the age of a once living thing by measuring the amount of carbon inside of it. A type of carbon called carbon-14 decays after an organism dies, so by measuring how much of it is remaining in a dead organism, scientists can figure out how old the organism is.