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→Principles: Reinstate important introductory paragraph; most people think that radiometric dating is *measuring* a date; it isn't.
== Principles ==
== Principles ==
No method exists for ''measuring'' time, except by measuring it as it is passing.
Therefore, the age of an artifact must be ''calculated''.
The basic principle in any dating method is to find a process that is occurring at measurable rate and which is causing a change, measure the rate of that process, work out what state the artifact was in at the beginning of the process, observe what state it is in now, and to calculate how long the process at the measured rate would need to occur to effect that change.
The basic principle in any dating method is to find a process that is occurring at measurable rate and which is causing a change, measure the rate of that process, work out what state the artifact was in at the beginning of the process, observe what state it is in now, and to calculate how long the process at the measured rate would need to occur to effect that change.