Question

A student in greece discovers a pottery bowl that contains 28% of its original amount of C-14
N=N0e*kt N0= initial amount of C=14 (at time t=0) N= amount of C-14 at time t t= time, in years k=0.0001
Find the age of the pottery bowl to the nearest year

Answer 1

well the model is for exponential decay

you let a = the initial amount od C-14

after t years there is only 0.28a of C-14 (28% remaining as a decimal)

and you know k

so you have to substitute

\[0.28a = a e^{-0.0001t}\]

divide both sides of the equation by a

\[0.28 = e^{-0.0001t}\]

so now you need to take the base e log of both sides then solve for t

hope this helps