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Unfortunate Creationist Misquotes or Misleading Statements
 
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Carbon 14 dating techniques were first developed by theAmerican chemist, Willard F. Libby at the University of Chicago inthe 50's, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1960.It has a radio half-life (T 1/2) of 5,730 years and is a low energy betaemitter with a radioactive range in air of ten inches. It is producedcurrently at a fairly constant rate in the upper atmosphere through the action of cosmicradiation on Nitrogen-14. About 21 pounds of Nitrogen is converted each year makingabout 1/trillion atmospheric carbon atoms radioactive
14
C. The
14
C then makes its wayfairly evenly throughout the atmosphere and living things incorporate it into their carbon“skeletons”. When they die, they no longer obtain more
14
C to incorporate, and so, the
14
C decays back into
14
N without being replaced. A ratio can then be established andcompared with the known half-life of 
14
C. Then an age can be obtained for the organicmaterial.
 
 
What Is Carbon 14?
 
To understand this process we must first understand a little bit about the atomsthemselves and how they get their names. Most carbon atoms have six positivelycharged protons and six uncharged neutrons. Since protons and neutrons weigh aboutthe same, the atomic mass of ordinary carbon is 6 + 6 = 12. It is called “Carbon 12,”which is abbreviated “
12
C.” The fact that the atom has six protons is what makes itcarbon. Most nitrogen atoms have seven protons and seven neutrons, so their atomicmass is 7 + 7 = 14. The fact that it has seven protons is what makes it nitrogen. Other atoms are also named based on the number of protons they carry. Notice in thediagram that eight different isotopes of Carbon are illustrated. Three of the Carbonisotopes (
12
C,
13
C, and
14
C) are found in nature. The rest of the carbon isotopes are onlyof laboratory interest. To the left side of each C (C is the symbol for Carbon) are twonumbers, the bottom number indicates the Atomic Number or the number of protons inthe nucleus. Since all the atoms are carbon, they should all have an Atomic Number of 6. The top number is the Mass Number for each isotope. The Mass Number for anyisotope is the addition of all the protons and neutrons in the nucleus. Looking at the first
of 00

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