This video explains the carbon14 method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of this radioactive isotope of carbon.

Carbon has two stable nonradioactive isotopes, carbon12 and carbon13, and one radioactive isotope, carbon14. The halflife of carbon14 is 5730 years. Because of its relatively short halflife you might expect that its concentration in the atmosphere would be reduced over thousands of years but new carbon14 is always being produced in the upper atmosphere by the interaction of cosmic rays, neutrons and nitrogen14 atoms. Therefore the concentration of carbon14 in the atmosphere is relatively constant.

Plants and animals have the same concentration of carbon14 as the atmosphere because they are constantly exchanging it with their environment. When they die, the carbon14 in their bodies continues to decay, but they are no longer able to take up new carbon14 and the concentration of carbon14 in their bodies decreases. Knowing the concentration of carbon14 at the time of death and the concentration of carbon14 some time (t) after death enables you to determine how long it has been since the plant or animal died.

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