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Do radioactive hydrocarbons exist?

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Carbon-14 dating is based on radioactive hydrocarbons. Carbon-14 is produced in the upper atmosphere by cosmic rays colliding with Nitrogen-14. The production rate has been fairly constant over the 60,000 year period for which Carbon-14 dating can work. read more

Radioactivity is a property of atoms, not of molecules. Hydrocarbons consist of hydrogen and carbon atoms, and for both atom types radioactive variants exist: tritium for hydrogen, and e.g. carbon-14 for carbon (and there are many others for carbon). read more

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