| MadSci Network: Chemistry |
John
This degree of precision is not credible for samples of any age. The method is not able to date an object to the nearest year; standard error ranges are typically reported as +/- 30 years for young samples and errors are greater for old samples. You were right to suspect that this was too good to be true.
David C. Kopaska-Merkel
Geological Survey of Alabama
Reliable information online about carbon dating:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating
http://www.howstuffworks.com/carbon-14.htm
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/dating/radio_carbon.html
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/radiometric.html
Try the links in the MadSci Library for more information on Chemistry.