radiocarbon dating. noun. a technique for determining the age of organic materials, such as wood, based on their content of the radioisotope 14 C acquired from the atmosphere when they formed part of a living plant. The 14 C decays to the nitrogen isotope 14 N with a half-life of 5730 years.

Who is determined by radiocarbon dating?

Radiocarbon dating is a method that provides objective age estimates for carbon-based materials that originated from living organisms. An age could be estimated by measuring the amount of carbon-14 present in the sample and comparing this against an internationally used reference standard.