Archaeologists have studied artifacts and remains found at the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump site. They believe the site was used as early as 3600 BCE. One of the tools archaeologists use to determine the age of an artifact made from plants or animals is carbon dating.

This procedure is based on the principle that plants and animals, while alive, utilize the various isotopes of carbon as basic building blocks. Carbon-14 is one of those isotopes. It decays at a constant rate and, when a plant or animal dies, the carbon-14 atoms that decay are not replaced. When the artifacts are examined in the laboratory, the remaining carbon-14 is measured and compared to what it would have been when the plant or animal was alive. The percentage of original carbon-14 that remains can be determined by solving an exponential equation.

An exponential equation is obtained from an exponential function—the unknown appears in the exponent. In this Training Camp, you will solve exponential equations and related problems.