Environmental Chemistry

Homework Assignment 1 (16 points)

1. Write the three individual reactions and the overall reaction for hydrogen burning.
2. Write the balanced nuclear reactions that result in the formation of carbon (starting from helium).
3. The half-life of C-14 is 5730 years. How old is a wooden bowl whose C-14 activity is 25% of the activity of modern wood?
4. At Stonehenge, a charcoal sample is dug up and identified as the remains of a fire. The activity of the charcoal sample is 9.65 disintegrations per minute per gram of carbon. Living tissue has a C-14 activity of 15.3 disintegrations per minute per gram of carbon. When was the fire at Stonehenge ignited?

Environmental Chemistry -- ENV 440
Last Updated:  02/10/00