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Absolute Dating Powerpoint

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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John Osborne
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832 views15 pages

Absolute Dating Powerpoint

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.

Uploaded by

John Osborne
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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  • Absolute Dating Overview
  • Radiometric Dating
  • Understanding Half Lives
  • Applications of Half Life in Age Determination
  • Samples and Data of Half-Lives
  • Practice Questions

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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