BWE
Posts: 1902
Joined: Jan. 2006
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Darn Dave,
Maybe that is a good point. What you aren't getting is how much c14 you are measuring. At 10,000 years the original carbon has lost x amount maybe 3 or 4 half lives. Beyond 50k years, you are measuring such a small quantity that a very small contaminant can dramatically skew the results. That same small contaminant, while it may skew the results at 10000 years, skews it a very small amount. So it might throw it off by 1-5000 years. That same amount at 100,000 years might throw it off by 100,000 years. Does that make sense?
Here's a little analogy:
Fold a piece of ordinary notebook paper in half. 1 square centimeter is x percent of your surface area. Does 1 sq. cm affect your total by alot? Could you still be generally accurate +- that 1 sq cm? Now fold your half sheet in half. Same test. That 1 sq. cm is a little more substantial. By the way, it really does help to actually fold a piece of paper.
Now, fold it in half as many times as you can and count the number of folds. Should be 7 or 8. That is the paper's half life.  Now, how much in percent does your one sq. cm throw off your surface area estimation?
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