What is the main problem with carbon dating?

But scientists have long recognized that carbon dating is subject to error because of a variety of factors, including contamination by outside sources of carbon. Therefore they have sought ways to calibrate and correct the carbon dating method.

Why is carbon dating not always possible?

Because of the short length of the carbon-14 half-life, carbon dating is only accurate for items that are thousands to tens of thousands of years old. Most rocks of interest are much older than this. Geologists must therefore use elements with longer half-lives.

Is carbon dating accurate or not?

Radiocarbon dating can easily establish that humans have been on the earth for over twenty thousand years, at least twice as long as creationists are willing to allow. They have their work cut out for them, however, because radiocarbon (C-14) dating is one of the most reliable of all the radiometric dating methods.

How much carbon-14 is in your body when you are alive?

Carbon-14 content of the body is based on the fact that one 14C atom exists in nature for every 1,000,000,000,000 12C atoms in living material.

How long does it take to carbon date?

Typically, about 1 3 days of counting time is required. In spite of many uncertainties, this method gives fairly good idea about the age of the sample up to about 60000 years.