the problem with carbon dating

[Hi panther_seven1!

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Long excerpts should not be pasted into message boxes. Please introduce the point in your own words and provide the link as a reference.

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Lengthy cut-n-paste from The Problem of Carbon over at Dr. Dino deleted.

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--Admin][This message has been edited by Admin, 08-12-2003]

I believe the appropriate stock phrase is "Read the forum guidelines. You're in violation."If you want to discuss a few points from this little piece of propaganda, why don't you pick a few and paraphrase, just to show that you actually understand them. Then we can talk about how they've all been refuted by science. Okay?****edit****Hi Percy. 'scuse the duplication of effort.
Clear this if you want....[This message has been edited by zephyr, 08-12-2003]

The half-life of carbon is 5,730 years. After 5 half lives the number is so close to zero that it's impossible to tell how old the object is. C14 can't possibly be used to measure anything over the age of 30,000 let alone millions of years old.

So? No one doing 14C dating is doing that anyway. And if someone says they are ignore them because they're obviously a loony.

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The half-life of carbon is 5,730 years. After 5 half lives the number is so close to zero that it's impossible to tell how old the object is. C14 can't possibly be used to measure anything over the age of 30,000 let alone millions of years old.

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Who told you that C14 dating had ever been used to date anything millions of years old? Granted, it's possible, but any competent scientist knows better. That's why we have so many other methods for dating things older than a few tens of thousands of years. There are plenty of metals with half-lives in the tens of millions and hundreds of millions. Did you forget about those? What about the correlation of radiometric dating methods with tree rings, ice cores, varves, and historical records? What you say is true, but it's also irrelevant and completely uninformative.

(Response edited out.)On second thought, forget it. The arguments against this have been posted all across the forum already.[This message has been edited by Dan Carroll, 08-12-2003]

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C14 can't possibly be used to measure anything over the age of 30,000 let alone millions of years old.

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Actually, it can be used to date objects up to about 40k, maybe 50k. That's about it.You might should consider that what you claim can't be done, has been done thousands of times. This is a bit like swearing bees can't fly because they are too heavy for their wings-- while watching a bee fly.------------------
No webpage found at provided URL: www.hells-handmaiden.com

John writes:

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This is a bit like swearing bees can't fly because they are too heavy for their wings-- while watching a bee fly.

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Before some anti-scientist snatches this up as evidence that scientists are idiots....It was never said by any scientist that bumblebees can't fly. Instead, it was said that using a rigid-wing analysis, then a bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly. Well sure enough, bumblebees don't have rigid wings.So the analysis of how they fly took a look at their musculature and it was found that the amount of strength in those muscles wasn't quite enough. But still, no scientist ever said that bubmblebees can't fly. They always said that given our knowledge of the flight dynamics, we're obviously missing something.That's when the analysis of the vortices produced by the flapping of the wings and it was found that they get a bit of extra lift in this process that provides enough for the to fly.Scientists are not fools. The reason why they do their work is because they actually observe something and they don't stop poking at it until they can come up with a process that can fully explain what it is they're seeing.------------------
Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

You're treading on thin ice, son! Keep this up and next thing you know Moose will make you a moderator. Seriously, the admins need all the help we can get calling people's attention to the forum guidelines. When I caution members to let the admins handle things it's usually because they're taking an approach that begins, "Look, you idiot...", not that I don't fall prey to that temptation myself. ------------------

--	Percy
	EvC Forum Administrator