Strange Observations of Radioactive Decay
Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 11:47 pm
by likeafox
Questions have been raised about the constantness of certain universal constants:
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/augu ... 82310.html
Wouldn't it be crazy if all the radiometrically dated rock from billions of years ago was off by 20% or something?
Re: Strange Observations of Radioactive Decay
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 2:41 am
by Arloest
The idea that some of our oldest rocks could be dated by such a large margin of era IS striking, but not altogether surprising. Our understanding of how the world and the universe works changes daily, it would appear. That's one of the terrifying and exciting things about science. It's because of things like this that our current understanding of the first 400 million years of Earth's existence is drastically different than it was only 10 years ago.
As a side note, though, geologists don't completely and utterly rely on radiometric dating to estimate rock ages. Often, laws of superposition and observations of the trends in the country rock also contribute to knowing the general era of when rocks form.
Re: Strange Observations of Radioactive Decay
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 3:30 am
by likeafox
margin of era
That is the best pun.
Re: Strange Observations of Radioactive Decay
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:14 am
by Arloest
Awwwwrright I didn't know if anyone would pick up on that!