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To verify the accuracy of radioactive dating, testing first needed to be conducted on samples of known age.  Otherwise, could radioactive dating confirm the age of a piece of wood from a mummiform coffin from Egypt dated from the Ptolemaic period, 332 B.C.?  Could radioactive dating accurately predict the age of acacia wood from the tomb of Zozer at Sakkara, which is known to be 4650 ±75 years old?

In tests, observations matched predictions, verifying the accuracy of radiocarbon dating.  Once verified, the methodology could be applied to measure the age of any organic sample, such as the Burmis tree in Alberta.

To determine the age of a sample using radioactive dating, assume that the amount of carbon-14 in the ancient wood, when it died, was identical to the amount of carbon-14 in a similar sample of living wood today.  In other words, the amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere has not changed significantly in the past 5000 years.  In reality, scientists and archaeologists carefully adjust for variations in atmospheric carbon-14 by comparing values to known values from ice cores, deep-sea sediments, and tree growth rings (dendrochronology).