Copper Half-Life (Radio Dating)

I love the copper block. It has a really interesting mechanic and it fills a hole in the ores. However, I think it could be better. Currently it takes 50-82 days for one oxidization stage to occur. In real life, Carbon dating can be used to determine how old something is. I think that, rather than having a set range of time it takes for each block to oxidize, there should be an amount of time it takes for half of the remaining sample to oxidize (a half-life). This would be an opportunity for players to learn some real world things without intruding on the game too much, rather than just looking at a pile of copper and knowing how old it is within 64 days. With a good half-life system, a decent sample of copper could be analyzed to determine its age to a very accurate degree (I'm too lazy to calculate how accurate). Thank you for coming to my ted talk. (Yes, half-life is a real thing affecting radioactive materials and not just a video game title)