Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon.

Why is c14 used in carbon dating?

Carbon-14 is considered a radioactive isotope of carbon. Because its unstable, carbon-14 will eventually decay back to carbon-12 isotopes. And thats the key to radiocarbon dating. Scientists measure the ratio of carbon isotopes to be able to estimate how far back in time a biological sample was active or alive.