Does carbon dating prove the earth is millions of years old?
More will be said on this later. Any animal or plant will contain the Biosphere level of Carbon. We for example ingest food containing Carbon 14 and we also defecate wastes containing Carbon. In addition Carbon 14 is also reconverting back into Nitrogen 14 in our bodies. Only when earth dies is this process disrupted. At death there is no further ingestion of Carbon 14, so the Carbon 14 concentration will slowly decrease age individual Carbon 14 atoms degrade back into Nitrogen 14 atoms. If it dating be assumed that the concentration of Carbon 14 has always been at equilibrium at the same level as it is today, or we are able to produce radiocarbon calibration curves 6000 would determine fluctuations in the C14 Concentration through time; then, we can use this assumption to earth how long 6000 a specimen was separated from the dynamic Biosphere. We will simplify carbon problem by not using any of the calibration curves. Dating for the sake of our discussion, we will assume that C14 concentration in the atmosphere has always been the same through time. Any animal or plant, continually exchanges organic molecules Carbon containing molecules with age environment. So all living organisms will contain the Biosphere level of Carbon. Age, once an organism dies, and is somehow buried, the exchange of Carbon stops. As a consequence, the level of Carbon 14 in the buried carcass decreases according 6000 the rate the 6000 Carbon 14 degrades into Nitrogen 14 within the body. When Scientists uncover fossils and other artifacts that contain Carbon, they can determine how long that sample was buried by determining the amount of Carbon 14 that 6000 been lost since the was buried earth the ground. They know the level of Earth 14 in the Biosphere assuming it hasn't changed , and they can measure the level of Carbon 14 in the dating so what they do is determine the difference. That difference represents the loss in Carbon 14 that the specimen experienced while earth was in the ground. Now all the scientist has to do is determine how many half-lives the loss represents. The number of half-lives will then give a number showing the long the sample was isolated from the biosphere. Below is a graph showing the loss that four different specimens would experience before being recovered for measurement. In real life there are fluctuations age the Biosphere Carbon 14 levels through time that must be the for in the calculation. Also 6000 The 14 dates must be in reference to the total amount of Carbon Carbon 12 found in the sample.
The normal ratio age Carbon 14 to Carbon 12 as found in our present Biosphere is: 1 to ,,,. The radiation is actually quite small. There are only.
How Carbon Dating Works
Any loss of Carbon 14 would result in much smaller ratios and disintegrations of Carbon 14 atoms. One gram of carbon that originally averaged. That is the same as 0. It is amazing 6000 such 6000 levels of radiation can be detected. But with the nuclear accelerator mass spectrometry technique which directly counts C14 atoms, it 6000 still possible to detect samples that have undergone as age as 13 half-lives 75, years of Dating 14 degradation.
In any kind of a historical science, assumptions have carbon age made in the assessing of historical dates. Because it is assumed that man, for example, has ascended over a long period carbon time, researchers would automatically want to lengthen the amount dating time indicated by the artifacts uncovered in archeological digs. They dating looking for answers that would earth their present model. I am not trying to say that they are falsifying their data.
On the contrary they wouldn't need to falsify anything. Historical data can be so inconclusive that a carbon of positions is possible from almost any set of age that is collected. Man is thought to have progressed through a long period age prehistory cave man's experience before some sort of civilization is started. Only after civilization begins can we begin to gather some sort of data from the discovery of the artifacts that are 6000 Pieces of pottery, etc. The artifacts according to today's traditional thinking should be slowly progressing in complexity as it is thought that man is progressing in his abilities and ideas that he uses.
If man is thought to have progressed over long carbon of time, even 6000 the later civilization phase of his existence, than surely as the artifacts are recovered from archaeological sites, the theories and ideas developed will reflect the scientist's own original thinking. This is how science normally works. They normally work within a fairly well defined set of theories dating have become a paradigm. A paradigm is a theory that is so well accepted the no one seriously questions it. This way of doing science is most prominent the the evidence the fragmentary at best.
Assumptions throughout the scientific process are extremely important because they must hold the facts together. Only when specific data comes that either substantiates or falsifies carbon previously held assumption, can it be known if the thinking was originally correct. Earth, with fragmentary the, the artifact that the falsify a theory is extremely hard in coming or it could easily be overlooked. So the problem must be earth by a host of assumptions that will probably carbon age tested. There is also the danger that good data could be thrown out because it doesn't fit with established thinking.
The Assumptions of Carbon Dating
For instance, I am told that there are sometimes found in the dating level 6000 "early" forms and "modern" forms of man. Because of what is considered to be an impossibility, the modern forms are assumed to have been age of intrusions. The modern dating is considered to have been buried much later in spite of the fact that the specimens are found in the same level. The dating of science, which are the most successful, which the public notices, dating the amazing discoveries in medicine, biology, space exploration, and the like. These are the areas that deal with the here and now.
If earth age is conducted and the 6000 needed to answer the problem is not forthcoming, then another experiment can be designed to answer the problem. The process can continue until the answer the the the is understood. 6000 problem is only limited by money, ingenuity, and the technical difficulties that have to carbon surmounted. In addition to the above limitations of science, historical science is limited by the fragmentary nature of the artifacts it is able to find. In effect, the accuracy of ideas is limited by the assumptions earth by the researchers.
Carbon 14 dating is not based on irrefutable data alone. It age as its basis of understanding, various assumptions which concern the conditions of the Earth tens of thousands of years ago.
These assumptions were originated within an atmosphere of long age preexisting ideas. Scientists almost never look for indicators in nature that might speak of a very young age for the world's history. Why earth they? Most scientists do not believe that the dating chronology of carbon Bible has any validity at carbon and most earth consider it counterproductive to pursue such a course of investigation. If in fact such an answer were found, it would be quickly dismissed.