[quote]ShaunW wrote:
lorisco wrote
Boy that is sure a lot of billions being thrown around. Wouldn’t it be nice if the dating method used was actually real and factual and not just a theorized estimate? That would actually make your points valid. Yet, since carbon dating cannot be validated to that length of time you are just pissing in the breeze!
Mate,
Not once did I indicate that these datings going back to 3.6B yrs etc was based on radio-carbon dating.
I hope the below aids your understanding
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/age.html
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/radiometric.html
The next 40 years was a period of expanding research on the nature and behavior of atoms, leading to the development of nuclear fission and fusion as energy sources. A byproduct of this atomic research has been the development and continuing refinement of the various methods and techniques used to measure the age of Earth materials. Precise dating has been accomplished since 1950.
A chemical element consists of atoms with a specific number of protons in their nuclei but different atomic weights owing to variations in the number of neutrons. Atoms of the same element with differing atomic weights are called isotopes. Radioactive decay is a spontaneous process in which an isotope (the parent) loses particles from its nucleus to form an isotope of a new element (the daughter). The rate of decay is conveniently expressed in terms of an isotope’s half-life, or the time it takes for one-half of a particular radioactive isotope in a sample to decay. Most radioactive isotopes have rapid rates of decay (that is, short half-lives) and lose their radioactivity within a few days or years. Some isotopes, however, decay slowly, and several of these are used as geologic clocks. The parent isotopes and corresponding daughter products most commonly used to determine the ages of ancient rocks are listed below:
Parent Isotope Stable Daughter Product Currently Accepted Half-Life Values
Uranium-238 Lead-206 4.5 billion years
Uranium-235 Lead-207 704 million years
Thorium-232 Lead-208 14.0 billion years
Rubidium-87 Strontium-87 48.8 billion years
Potassium-40 Argon-40 1.25 billion years
Samarium-147 Neodymium-143 106 billion years
And from further down this same link:
The radiocarbon clock has become an extremely useful and efficient tool in dating the important episodes in the recent prehistory and history of man, but because of the relatively short half-life of carbon-14, the clock can be used for dating events that have taken place only within the past 50,000 years.
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Mate, you don’t seem to understand the difference between theory and fact.
Let me break it down for you.
“The ages of Earth and Moon rocks and of meteorites are measured by the decay of long-lived radioactive isotopes of elements that occur naturally in rocks and minerals and that decay with half lives of 700 million to more than 100 billion years to stable isotopes of other elements.”
Since no one has been around to actually measure if the half life is actually 700 million years it is only theory. So why do they say that? They can measure the decay factually for say 50 years. They then take that and mathematical calculate what they believe the decay would look like in 700 millions years. This is a guess based on the decay they can actually measure for 50 years. This assumes a consistent decay over time, which again is not proven because they haven’t been around to determine if that is correct or not.
So all dating systems to date have the same problem; just like carbon dating, once they get beyond what they have actually been able to track it is an estimate.
So no one really factually knows how old these rocks are or how old the fossils found are once they are outside the date range that has been actually verified.
