Little help on carbon dating

[Doc.]

Hello everyone,

One of my professors is convinced that carbon dating is "inaccurate in 90 cases out of 100", if you want the context I can give it to you, but right now I'll cut to the chase - I've seen something on this forum a few years ago saying that there is some pseudoscience regarding carbon dating being inaccurate and everything, but I can't find any specific topic about it.

Can someone either link me to said information or maybe, if you don't mind sparing your time - just explain what the fuss is about - I'm a biology major, senior year undergrad, pick your terminology accordingly.

Cheers!

 

[Inferno]

Well, creationists love to point out that particular dating methods don't work in certain situations.

When talking about "carbon dating", I assume you mean the C-14 method?
In that particular example, they point out that

• live molluscs being dated to some thousands of years of age - This is due to the reservoir effect.
• wood being dated to an incorrect age - This is due to the "old wood" effect, basically a delay between felling and using it in building.
• objects older than 50,000 years give a measurable age - The C-14 method doesn't work on objects older than 50,000 years because there's little carbon in them. They therefore tend to give bogus ages.
• etc.

The main "problems" creationists level against the C-14 method are the following:

• It's not "observational science. (BULLSHIT!)
• The C-14 method assumes that the C-14 level was constant. (BULLSHIT, we actually know it wasn't constant and we can measure it.
• The C-14 method assumes that the rate of C-14 production was constant. (BULLSHIT, see above.)
• The abundance of C-14 to C-12 must remain the same. (BULLSHIT, see two above.)

TalkOrigins has an article on the topic.

If you have specific questions, don't hesitate.

 

[SpecialFrog]

And of course all dating methods (and all measurements, really) have an error margin, which means you can call them "inaccurate" in a manner that is generally pointless but that may be technically correct.

But of course no one would criticize science in such a weasellly manner.

 

[Deleted member 619]

Radiometric Dating Is Rigorous
ArsewaterinGenesis Carbon Dating Drivel Debunked

 

[Grumpy Santa]

Hello everyone,

One of my professors is convinced that carbon dating is "inaccurate in 90 cases out of 100", if you want the context I can give it to you, but right now I'll cut to the chase - I've seen something on this forum a few years ago saying that there is some pseudoscience regarding carbon dating being inaccurate and everything, but I can't find any specific topic about it.

Can someone either link me to said information or maybe, if you don't mind sparing your time - just explain what the fuss is about - I'm a biology major, senior year undergrad, pick your terminology accordingly.

Cheers!

Out of curiosity, professor of what?

 

[WarK]

Hello everyone,

One of my professors is convinced that carbon dating is "inaccurate in 90 cases out of 100", if you want the context I can give it to you, but right now I'll cut to the chase - I've seen something on this forum a few years ago saying that there is some pseudoscience regarding carbon dating being inaccurate and everything, but I can't find any specific topic about it.

Can someone either link me to said information or maybe, if you don't mind sparing your time - just explain what the fuss is about - I'm a biology major, senior year undergrad, pick your terminology accordingly.

Cheers!

Out of curiosity, professor of what?

It's professor Abel now, don't you know?

 

[Dustnite]

Out of curiosity, professor of what?

If it's biology, I want to know which college. Liberty University comes to mind...

 

[Grumpy Santa]

Out of curiosity, professor of what?

It's professor Abel now, don't you know?

I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit...

 

[Doc.]

Thank you, kind people. I'll read up the links provided over the weekend.

Out of curiosity, professor of what?

Geology. It's a smallish class called "vital resources of modern civilizations" that will give me the little bit of credits that I will need to get my diploma. To be fair the class is pretty okay. And the motivation the guy has is not religious, I don't really know what his deal is, though. I just want to know what's up with this, before I continue arguing with him.

If it's biology, I want to know which college. Liberty University comes to mind...

I don't know why do you assume that it's either a college or in the states at all, it's neither. I live in Tbilisi, Georgia, black sea region.

 

[Deleted member 619]

Interesting. One of my close colleagues is a geologist, so maybe I'll quiz him on this tomorrow, but my understanding is that geologists tend to have a pretty good grasp of the physics involved in radiometric dating. I would certainly expect a geologist to understand error bars, so I wouldn't have thought that to be the source of his comment. Any decent scientist knows that a measurement without an error bar is entirely without meaning or utility.

It should always be noted that radiometric dating is a statistical endeavour. There are certainly circumstances in which dates returned don't match the most basic of models (reservoir effect, neutron capture, etc), but these are all accounted for. For example, it's well understood that any nitrogen-rich sample in the vicinity of a source of free neutrons will have elevated 14C, via a well-documented process of nuclear physics.

Nitrogen is defined by having 7 protons in its nucleus. In the case of 14N, the most stable atomic state of nitrogen, it has 7 protons and 7 neutrons. In the vicinity of a source of free neutrons, a neutron can knock a proton out, leaving 6 protons and 8 neutrons, which is, yes, you've guessed it, 14C (for the uninitiated and those who get their scientific information from cretinist screeds, the number attached correlates to the number of nucleons). Such environments include, for example, anywhere with a source of uranium nearby, as uranium is a source of neutron radiation.

Any such circumstance is accounted for in the dating process.

I don't know why do you assume that it's either a college or in the states at all, it's neither. I live in Tbilisi, Georgia, black sea region.

Not an unreasonable assumption, all things considered. It might look unreasonable but, if this were presented as a quiz question I didn't know the answer to, I'd probably give the same answer, just playing the statistics.

 

[Dustnite]

I don't know why do you assume that it's either a college or in the states at all, it's neither. I live in Tbilisi, Georgia, black sea region.

Because my country has these kind of fucktards in abundance, I always assume that it's coming from the US.