Earth science help... relative adequate & absolute needed?

Question

i have to do this chart for my class and it is like this...(chart doesn't work on here): there are 4 columns and 5 rows.

column 1= situation

column 2= relative adequate

column 3= absolute needed

column 4= why

&& under Situation (column 1) there are 5 questions...

row/question 1=Birth position of you siblings

row/question 2=Comparing which fossil is older

row/question 3=How old you will be on your next birthday?

row/question 4=When Mount Mazama erupted

row/question 5=How long a candle has been burning

...I have to fill in the chart. For each situation answer "yes" to indicate whether the relative age is adequate or the absolute age is needed and tell why. (i don't get it!!)

---anybody know how to do this???

Answer 1

the idea is to figure out if you can answer the situation with "relative" data, or if you need "absolute" data.

sit 1: birth position. relative is adequate, we don't need to know the exact ages to establish who is OLDER than who.

sit 2 fossil is older, also relative adequate

sit 3 absolute needed.  how old is a fixed number.

sit 4 when mt mazama erupted.  I'd actually say relative, because we can't pin it down to a year, but we can say it happend before X and after Y

sit 5 how long candle : absolute needed.  when exactly was it lit?