RLG100Y1 Lecture : January and February Notes
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The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of some 981 different texts discovered between 1946 and 1956 in 11 caves near the shore of the Dead Sea. These texts have great religious significance because they include some of the oldest manuscript of the Hebrew Bible Canon.
Scholars have debated every aspect of the scrolls such as the age, when where they placed in the caves, where they placed together in the same time, why they were placed, and why were they left.
Radiocarbon dating has been performed by 3 scholars, Zurich, Tuscon, and Libby. The following are their samples:
Tuscon
Title of Manuscript Tested | 14C Age | Margin of Error |
4Q249 pap cryptA | 2097 | 50 |
Consider the 1st manuscript: 4Q249 pap cryptA
Its 14C age is 2097 meaning it dates to 2097 years before 1950.
So what percent remains in 1950?
To help determine this we need to know what percent 14C is decaying by each year.
Since out half life is 5760 we can find the per-year rate by:
1(1 - r)^5760 = 1/2
*our initial value is 1 to represent 100%
*we use a minus sign to represent decay
Now solve for r:
(1 - r)^5760 = 0.5
Once you have 'r' take the 14C date (2097) and use it to find the percent remaining in 1950.
1 (1 - r)^2097 = ?