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    Absolute Dating Powerpoint

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    John Osborne
    Absolute dating determines the exact age of rocks and fossils using radiometric dating. Radiometric dating relies on radioactive elements decaying at constant rates into stable daughter elements. The rate of decay is quantified by the half-life, which is the time it takes for half of a radioactive element to decay. By measuring the proportion of parent to daughter elements in a sample and comparing to the element's known half-life, the age of a rock can be calculated in terms of the number of half-lives that have passed.

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    Absolute Dating Powerpoint

    Uploaded by

    John Osborne
    297 views15 pages
    Absolute dating determines the exact age of rocks and fossils using radiometric dating. Radiometric dating relies on radioactive elements decaying at constant rates into stable daughter elements. The rate of decay is quantified by the half-life, which is the time it takes for half of a radioactive element to decay. By measuring the proportion of parent to daughter elements in a sample and comparing to the element's known half-life, the age of a rock can be calculated in terms of the number of half-lives that have passed.

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    The science behind radiometric dating

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    Absolute dating determines the exact age of rocks and fossils using radiometric dating. Radiometric dating relies on radioactive elements decaying at constant rates into stable daughter elements. The rate of decay is quantified by the half-life, which is the time it takes for half of a radioactive element to decay. By measuring the proportion of parent to daughter elements in a sample and comparing to the element's known half-life, the age of a rock can be calculated in terms of the number of half-lives that have passed.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    297 views15 pages

    Absolute Dating Powerpoint

    Uploaded by

    John Osborne
    Absolute dating determines the exact age of rocks and fossils using radiometric dating. Radiometric dating relies on radioactive elements decaying at constant rates into stable daughter elements. The rate of decay is quantified by the half-life, which is the time it takes for half of a radioactive element to decay. By measuring the proportion of parent to daughter elements in a sample and comparing to the element's known half-life, the age of a rock can be calculated in terms of the number of half-lives that have passed.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 15

    Absolute Dating

    Absolute Dating
    • Absolute Dating determines the actual
    age of a rock or fossil in years.

    • The main method of absolute dating is


    RADIOMETRIC DATING.
    How Radiometric Dating Works
    • Radioactive elements are unstable
    isotopes of elements, with atoms that give
    off particles (radiation) from their nuclei.
    • This is called Radioactive Decay
    • Atoms give off particles to become new
    lighter, more stable elements. Decay will
    continue until the new element is stable
    and not radioactive.
    Radioactive decay
    Half lives
    Rate of Decay
    • Radioactive elements decay at
    CONSTANT RATES. As soon as a
    rock forms with radioactive elements in it,
    decay begins. We use this to find the age
    of a rock.
    • The rate at which an element decays into
    a new element is measured as a HALF
    LIFE.
    Half Life
    • A HALF LIFE is the amount of TIME it takes
    for HALF of atoms of a radioactive element
    to decay into a new, stable element.

    – Terms used to describe material:


    • Parent Material: the original, radioactive element
    • Daughter Material: the new, stable element
    Example
    100 % Parent Material Time= 0 The rock formed

    50 % Parent, 50% Daughter 1 Half Life

    25% Parent, 75% Daughter 2 Half Lives

    12.5 % Parent, 87.5 % Daughter 3 Half Lives

    6.25% Parent, 93.75 % Daughter 4 Half Lives


    Graph of data: Decay Curve
    100

    % Parent
    50

    25

    12.5
    6.25
    1 2 3 4 5
    Half Lives
    Using Half Life to find Age
    • If you know the number of years there
    are in an elements half-life, you can figure
    out the age of a rock.

    – The number of years in an elements’ half-life


    would be the number of YEARS it takes for
    HALF of the radioactive elements in the rock
    to turn into stable elements.
    Example
    • The number of years in a half-life for
    Carbon-14 is 5,730.
    – So….. If one half-life has passed, the rock is
    5,730.
    If two half-lives have passed, the rock is
    11,460 years old.
    Samples of Half-Lives
    Questions
    • If a rock contains 50% parent material, how
    many half-lives have passed?
    • If a rock contains 12.5 % parent material, how
    many half-lives have passed?
    • If a rock’s half-life is 25 years, and two half-lives
    have passed, how old is the rock?
    • If a rock’s half-life is 50 years, and three half-
    lives have passed, how old is the rock?
    Half Life, 1/2

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