the age of the earth

[Abaddon_ire]

They say 4.5 bill years with a range of 50 million years, but how did they not get its exact age? And where did they come up with the number of 50 million? Do you believe scientists really know?

This is stupid, this is like laypeople bitching when the weatherman calls for scattered showers and it does not rain in around one viewer's house. 

It is true science cannot pinpoint the exact day the big bang happened, but they have damned good data that gives us a range. In cosmic time, that is like hitting the edge of a dartboard bullseye from a hundred yards away. You don't have to be dead center to be accurate. 

I have lived in hurricane territory for the past 14 years. I have been through several hurricanes. There is a reason meteorologists and scientists who track these storms and use the word "cone".

This always bothers me. Some people cannot grasp that lots of things cannot be known with precision. For example, the power in my home (and everyone else's round here) is 240V ac at 50 Hertz. But it isn't really. Last time I actually measured it, it was 231V at 48 Hertz. Why can the power company not give a precise value? Because that is not possible since they cannot predict the load at any given time. Sure, in bulk, they can average it out. But they cannot predict mine at any given time because they have no way of knowing when or if I, or any of my neighbours might turn on or off a hefty load. That's why things like, for example, your laptop charger will have printed on it a range of suitable input AC for a given DC output.

Or to make a more clinical example, take a single atom of Uranium 238. We know it will decay into an atom of Thorium, but there is no way to know when.

Or to make it even simpler, take a simple metal ruler. Sure, it measures inches/cm. A steel rule is the type preferred. Wooden if one insists. But we know that metal expands/contracts with temperature and wood with, say, moisture on top.

Thus it is sensible to give a tolerance value since one cannot account for local conditions.