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Author Topic:   The dating game
ringo
Member (Idle past 661 days)
Posts: 20940
From: frozen wasteland
Joined: 03-23-2005


Message 5 of 94 (392635)
04-01-2007 4:19 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by Reserve
03-31-2007 2:11 PM


Reserve writes:
It says that Potasium-argon does not work for recent dates. I wonder, why not? why only for ages older than 100kya?
Would you use your car's odometer to measure your living-room drapes?

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This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Reserve, posted 03-31-2007 2:11 PM Reserve has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 6 by Reserve, posted 04-01-2007 4:28 PM ringo has replied

  
ringo
Member (Idle past 661 days)
Posts: 20940
From: frozen wasteland
Joined: 03-23-2005


Message 10 of 94 (392650)
04-01-2007 4:56 PM
Reply to: Message 6 by Reserve
04-01-2007 4:28 PM


The analogy works just fine if you really do see what I'm getting at.
You can't use your car's odometer to measure your drapes because it's only calibrated to tenths of a mile. Since it can only measure to the nearest tenth of a mile, anything less than a tenth of a mile will return... a tenth of a mile. Every set of drapes you measure will be a tenth of a mile, so there's no point in measuring at all. Just go to the store and order "drapes".
Similarly, the K-Ar method is calibrated to - let's say - millions of years. Since it can only measure to the nearest million years, anything less than a million years will return... a million years. Every young sample you measure will be a million years, so there's no point in measuring at all.
That doesn't mean that either your odometer or K-Ar dating is inaccurate.
Don't take the exact numbers too seriously - I don't know what the actual sensitivity of K-Ar is, off hand. But the principle is sound and the analogy is sound.
If that's not the objection you have, then please be more clear in expressing it.

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ringo
Member (Idle past 661 days)
Posts: 20940
From: frozen wasteland
Joined: 03-23-2005


Message 66 of 94 (417121)
08-19-2007 3:18 PM
Reply to: Message 64 by Ihategod
08-19-2007 3:04 PM


Re: Question,
Vashgun writes:
Isn't this all developed based on a uniformitarian philosophy?
You can either seach for an existing topic on uniformitarian philosophy or start a new one.
Instead of whining that nobody will listen to you, involve yourself in a topic.

“Faith moves mountains, but only knowledge moves them to the right place” -- Joseph Goebbels
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