radioactive dating

British  

noun

1. another term for radiometric dating

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radioactive dating Cultural  

1. A process for determining the age of an object by measuring the amount of a given radioactive material it contains. If one knows how much of this radioactive material was present initially in the object (by determining how much of the material has decayed), and one knows the half-life of the material, one can deduce the age of the object.

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Discover More

The best known example of radioactive dating employs carbon 14, a radioactive isotope of carbon.

Example Sentences

But new radioactive dating techniques suggest Mrs Ples, and the others discovered around her, are actually one million years older than thought.

From BBC • Jun. 28, 2022

We will explore some of the most common types of radioactive dating and how the particular isotopes work for each type.

From Textbooks • Feb. 14, 2019

Using a new and improved radioactive dating technique, researchers discovered that paintings in three different caves were created more than 64,800 years ago.

From The Verge • Feb. 22, 2018

Once lunar samples were brought back by the Apollo astronauts, the radioactive dating techniques that had been developed for Earth were applied to them.

From Textbooks • Oct. 13, 2016

For all its startling applications, radioactive dating is inadequate for objects that are very small or contain only tiny traces of radioactive matter.

From Time Magazine Archive