Carbon dating cost

The type of carbon that we are interested in, because it is radioactive, is carbon with eight neutrons: carbon-14. There is also another stable, non-radioactive isotope of carbon with seven neutrons: carbon-13. About 99% of natural carbon is carbon-12. All carbon has six protons - that is what makes it carbon - and most carbon has six neutrons, making carbon-12 the normal isotope of carbon.

We call them different isotopes, and name them by the sum of the number of protons and neutrons.

All elements can have different numbers of neutrons in their nucleuses.