The kinetics of radioactive decay and radiometric dating Free web cam without credit card registration

Assuming we start out with pure parent, as time passes, more and more daughter will be produced. A ratio of infinity (that is, all daughter and no parent) means an age of essentially infinity.

By measuring the ratio of daughter to parent, we can measure how old the sample is. Each radioactive element has a half-life, which tells how long it takes for half of the element to decay.

It just means that there is enough accuracy in the measurements to compute t to one or two percentage points of accuracy, where t is the time required to obtain the observed ratio of daughter to parent, assuming no initial daughter product was present at the beginning, and no daughter or parent entered or left the system.Perhaps the earth was made from older pre-existing matter, or perhaps decay rates were briefly faster for some reason. Geologic time is divided up into periods, beginning with the Precambrian, followed by the Cambrian and a number of others, leading up to the present.When one considers the power of God, one sees that any such conclusions are to some extent tentative. Some fossils are found in Precambrian rocks, but most of them are found in Cambrian and later periods.Since Cambrian and later rocks are largely sedimentary and igneous (volcanic) rocks are found in Cambrian and later strata, if these rocks are really 550 million years old, then life must also be at least 550 million years old.Therefore, my main concern is with rocks of the Cambrian periods and later.