Carbon dating techniques.?

"Would you accept the challenge of asking a young earth creationist question in one of the science sections?

It can be about earth being 3000 years old, or evolution being just a "theory" or anything else.

You can ask it even if you don't hold these beliefs. It would be interesting to see the reactions.

If you do so, post a link to your question."

someone posted this in the R%26amp;S section and I'm bored out of my mind right now. Sooooo

If the C-14 dating system is based on the half life of C-14, and the half life of it is about 5500 years, doesn't that mean that you can't date something millions of years old? I've asked a lot of people who claim to be evolutionists and they never give me a straight answer(kinda like Obama).

Carbon dating techniques.?guy myspace

I don't know who said it but C-14 dating cannot be used to date rocks.

Carbon dating techniques.?plain myspace myspace.comPlease, please, please. Print out the wikipedia page and give it to your teacher, so that he/she doesn't teach another class the same mistake. Please! Report It


What is this a conspiracy?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...
This is NOT a raid, the point of this is to show that the creationist's arguments hold no scientific merit. They're always spewing it in the Religion and Spirituality section so I thought it would be interesting to see what real scientists thought of this nonsense.

So don't hate me, science people. I'm on your side!
Well you see there are lots of other elements that have isotopes that decay at different rates.

Some of the heavier elements have half lives longer than the age of the universe.

Scientists use many different elements to test the age of the earth.

Carbon 14 is only used to date more recent things (10,000 yrs) and is reasonably accurate give or take a century.
You are correct - radiocarbon dating is only good for checking things under 10K years old.

Thats why we have pottasium-argon dating, uranium isotope dating, argon-argon dating, and about 15 other dating methods.
Ask about migratory patterns of R%26amp;S regulars.
%26gt;"If the C-14 dating system is based on the half life of C-14, and the half life of it is about 5500 years, doesn't that mean that you can't date something millions of years old?"

YES! That means you can't date something millions of years old ... using carbon dating! That's one reason that CARBON DATING IS *NOT* USED FOR DATING THINGS MILLIONS OF YEARS OLD!

People (not scientists) keep confusing "radiocarbon dating" with "radiometric dating". Radiocarbon dating (a.k.a. "carbon dating" or "C-14 dating") is just one form of dating things using radiometric isotopes. But you are right that the C-14 isotope has far too short a half-life (5,568 years) for things millions of years old.

That's why THEY USE OTHER FORMS OF RADIOMETRIC DATING ... *NOT* C-14 ... FOR THINGS MILLIONS OF YEARS OLD. Things like uranium-lead dating (half-life 0.76 billion years); potassium-argon dating (half-life 1.26 billion years); or rubidium-strontium dating (half-life 48.8 billion years) and about a dozen other methods.

%26gt;"My teachers at school and our textbooks say that they use C-14 dating to date rocks and stuff back millions of years."

I doubt that. I don't know about your teachers ... but I doubt *very* much that your textbook says C-14 dating is used for rocks and things back millions of years.

Please check your textbook again. If it really does say that ... please list your textbook here, and give the quote.