Step 1 :The question is asking for the age of the paintings given that they contain 12% of the original carbon-14. The exponential decay model for carbon-14 is given by \(A=A0e^{-0.000121t}\), where \(A\) is the amount of carbon-14 remaining, \(A0\) is the original amount of carbon-14, and \(t\) is the time in years.
Step 2 :Since the paintings contain 12% of the original carbon-14, we can set \(\frac{A}{A0} = 0.12\). We can then solve for \(t\) in the equation \(0.12 = e^{-0.000121t}\).
Step 3 :Solving the equation gives \(t = 17523\).
Step 4 :Final Answer: The paintings are approximately \(\boxed{17523}\) years old.