Changes

''See also [[Counterexamples to an Old Earth]]''.

''See also [[Counterexamples to an Old Earth]]''.

'''Radiometric dating''' is a method of determining the age of an artifact by assuming that on average decay rates have been constant (see below for the flaws in that assumption) and measuring the amount of radioactive decay that has occurred.<ref>[http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/radiometric.html Radiometric Time Scale] USGS</ref> Radiometric dating is mostly used to determine the age of rocks, though a particular form of radiometric dating&mdash;called [[Radiocarbon dating]]&mdash;can date wood, cloth, skeletons, and other organic material.

'''Radiometric dating''' is a method of determining the approximate age of an artifact by measuring the amount of radioactive decay that has occurred.<ref>[http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/radiometric.html Radiometric Time Scale] USGS</ref> Radiometric dating is mostly used to determine the age of rocks, though a particular form of radiometric dating&mdash;called [[Radiocarbon dating]]&mdash;can date wood, cloth, skeletons, and other organic material. Radiometric dating requires careful analysis and control over the isotopic mix of atoms in the original sample, as well as careful analysis and control of factors (e.g. chemical changes) that might have changed the amounts of the various elements in the sample during the decay interval.  These difficulties are considerable, and are discussed below. It also requires knowledge of the rates at which various isotopes decay. These rates are known to great accuracy.

Because radiometric dating fails to satisfy standards of testability and [[falsifiability]], claims based on radiometric dating may fail to qualify under the ''[[Daubert]]'' standard for court-admissible scientific evidence.  It is more accurate for shorter time periods (e.g., hundreds of years) during which control variables are less likely to change.  

Because analysis of the various control variables that could affect the chemical composition of the sample during the decay period often depends on shrewd guesswork, radiometric dating as a whole could be said to fail the standards of testability and [[falsifiability]], and so claims based on radiometric dating may fail to qualify under the ''[[Daubert]]'' standard for court-admissible scientific evidence.  The underlying decay rates, on the other hand, are completely testable and falsifiable.

 

Radiometric dating is more accurate for shorter time periods (e.g., hundreds of years), during which control variables are less likely to change.

 

Due to so many different kinds or radiometric dating in use (i.e [[Radiocarbon dating]], also called carbon dating, [[Potassium-argon dating]], [[Uranium-lead dating]], [[Uranium-thorium]] and [[Rubidium-strontium dating]]), all of which concur with each other when dating objects, it is extremely unlikely that all of them are wrong in the exact same way. Therefore, support for radiometric dating is virtually universal in the scientific community.

== Key implausible assumptions ==

== Key implausible assumptions ==