It compares the amount of carbon 14 contained in the remains of the substance with the amount of carbon 14 that would have been in the object's environment at the time it was alive. A mathematical formula is used to determine the age of the object based on the carbon 14 proportion remaining in the substance. If a computer is used to solve this equation, there must be some means of communicating the carbon 14 proportion remaining in the object to the computer. Numerical and character values are established in a computer program by the use of constants and variables . Constants are values used directly in the program.
Variables represent memory locations that are given a name.
Constants Constants may contain a plus or minus sign, but not commas. The number 5,247 is not a valid constant because it contains a comma. Integer constants are constants that do not contain a decimal point. The size of integer that can be stored in a computer depends on the computer itself. Real constants contain a decimal point and may or may not have digits past the decimal point.