Széndátálás

Széndátálás is a Hungarian term that translates to "carbon dating" in English. It is a scientific method used to determine the age of organic materials. The technique relies on the radioactive decay of carbon-14, an isotope of carbon that is naturally present in living organisms.

When an organism is alive, it constantly exchanges carbon with its environment, maintaining a relatively stable ratio of carbon-14 to other carbon isotopes. Upon death, this exchange ceases, and the carbon-14 within the organism begins to decay at a known rate, with a half-life of approximately 5,730 years. By measuring the remaining amount of carbon-14 in a sample and comparing it to the expected amount in a living organism, scientists can calculate how much time has passed since the organism died.

Széndátálás is a crucial tool in archaeology, paleontology, and geology for dating artifacts, fossils, and geological formations. Its accuracy is generally reliable for samples up to around 50,000 years old, after which the amount of remaining carbon-14 becomes too small to measure accurately. The process requires specialized laboratory equipment and careful handling of samples to avoid contamination. Variations in atmospheric carbon-14 levels over time, due to factors like cosmic ray intensity and fossil fuel burning, can also introduce slight discrepancies that are accounted for through calibration curves.