The animation provides an example of how this logarithmic decay occurs. This is actually a mini-simulator, in that it processes a different sample each time and generates different dates. Dating Using this technique, almost any sample of organic material can be directly dated. There are a number of limitations, however. First, the size of the archaeological sample is important.
Larger samples are better, because purification and distillation remove some matter.
Although new techniques for working with very small samples have been developed, like accelerator dating, these are very expensive and still somewhat experimental. Second, great care must be taken in collecting and packing samples to avoid contamination by more recent carbon. For each sample, clean trowels should be used, to avoid cross contamination between samples. The samples should be packaged in chemically neutral materials to avoid picking up new C-14 from the packaging. The packaging should also be airtight to avoid contact with atmospheric C-14.