Question

There are well over forty different radiometric dat

ing methods, and ________ of

other methods such as tree rings and ice cores.

•

All of the different dating methods agree

--they agree a great majority of the time

over millions of years of time. Some Christians mak

e it sound like there is a lot of

disagreement, but _________________________.

•

The differences actually found in the scientific li

terature are usually close to the

margin of error, usually __________________, not

____________________________.

•

Over a __________ papers on radiometric dating were

published in scientifically

recognized journals

in the last year

, and _______________________ of dates

have been published in the last 50 years. Essential

ly all of these strongly favor

an old Earth.

•

...it has been close to a hundred years since the ___

________-238 decay rate

was first determined.

•

Both long-range and short-range dating methods have

been successfully verified

by dating ________of historically known ages over a

range of several thousand

years.

•

The mathematics for determining the ages from the o

bservations is relatively

____________.

page 20

[page 10 of sum. doc.]

Beyond this, scientists have now used a "_____ ____

___" to prove that the half-lives of

radioactive species were the same millions of years

ago. This _____ ________ does

not allow people to actually go back in time, but i

t does allow scientists to observe

ancient events from a long way away. The _____ ____

___ is called the ____________.

Much of the light following a supernova blast is po

wered by newly created

_____________ ___________. So we observe radiometri

c decay in the supernova

light. The half-lives of decays occurring hundreds

of thousands of years ago are thus

carefully recorded! These half-lives completely agr

ee with the half-lives measured from

decays __________ ________. We must conclude that a

ll evidence points towards

unchanging radioactive half-lives.

Doubters Still Try

Speaking from an extreme technical viewpoint this m

ight be true--perhaps 1 atom out of

____________________ of a certain isotope has leake

d out of nearly all rocks...

These books detail experiments showing, for a given

dating system, which minerals

_____________________, which minerals work under so

me certain conditions, and

which minerals are likely to lose atoms and give __

______ results. Understanding these

conditions is part of the science of geology. Geolo

gists are careful to use the most

reliable methods whenever possible, and as discusse

d above, to test ____

_____________ between different methods.

While certain particles can cause nuclear changes,

____________________________.