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Scientific Dating
October 19, 2015 at 11:52 pm
I did not get really deep into chemistry. I have had more biology classes. What are all the dating methods scientists use? I know one is carbon dating which has something to do with the carbon isotopes which is probably the most popular one used in the scientific community.
How accurate are the different dating methods?
The reason I ask this is because of the ever changing atmosphere, then how do scientists know how much the isotopes have been affected by the atmosphere and if scientists compare those isotopes of dead things such as fossils or rocks to living things, then would this also allow room for human error.
The other reason I ask that too is because science has humans involved just like religion does and look at the error that has caused. No need to get into the religious deal. I was just making a statement. Please no comments on thoughts of religion to my questions asked above. Thanks in advance.
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RE: Scientific Dating
October 19, 2015 at 11:58 pm
Honestly, I prefer online dating.
But, in answer to your question...
Google is your friend.
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RE: Scientific Dating
October 20, 2015 at 12:01 am
Dendrochronology is accurate to 1 year back (IIRC) 7000 years for Europe.
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RE: Scientific Dating
October 20, 2015 at 12:04 am
I don't know about carbon dating being popular so much as a dating tool for a specific set of circumstances. It has its limitations, which are known and understood by those in the field. As long as no-one's doing the radiometric equivalent of using a calendar to time an egg, everything works. The other point you raised, human error, can be cancelled out as much as possible by measuring a range of samples, in different labs, and seeing if they agree with each other. Science is rather more than just one bloke in a labcoat getting everyone to agree with his latest idea.
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RE: Scientific Dating
October 20, 2015 at 12:25 am
Carbon dating is not very accurate.
The earth is 6000 years old!
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RE: Scientific Dating
October 20, 2015 at 12:38 am
For the biblical timeline to be true, though, Blondie, the error would literally have to be nominally 100%.
We are talking billions of years here. That's 4.7 thousand thousand thousand years. For them to be so wrong that it's off by 4.699994 billion, the multiple dating methods would have to, like, be colluding with each other to trick us or something.
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