How do the archeologists figure out the age of a Dinassour or a mummy???

Question

Did the holy spirit help them??

Just curious???

Answer 1

Paleontologists use radio dating of fossils or the material the fossils were found in to determine their age.

Carbon dating isn't used for dinosaurs, because it only goes back tens of thousands of years.  There are other element isotopes that have longer half lives that are used.  I'm not an expert here.  But in addition to having some element for which you know the decay products and the decay half life, you have to have a good story that explains why the clock is reset when the animal or plant died or was first fossilized.  For example, a very small amount of Uranium 235 might enter the body in life.  U235 decays into Thorium 231.  Now this Thorium also decays, but at a known rate.   So the ratio of Thorium 231 to Uranium 235 could give you the age of the animal.  But you have to make sure that the animal wouldn't have significant amounts of Thorium...

A mummy can be dated with Carbon dating.  The body absorbs an amount of Carbon 14 proportional to that found in the atmosphere.  At death, the Carbon 14 decays at a known rate to Carbon 12.  So the Carbon 14 to Carbon 12 starting ration is known.  You measure the new ratio.  You work out how much Carbon 14 must have decayed into Carbon 12, and therefore figure out how long that must have taken.

The Holy Spirit does not play much of a role in science.

Answer 2

DINOSAUR,use spell check!

Answer 3

by Carbon dating, because of the isotope of carbon..that is, carbon-14

Answer 4

Archeologists don't deal with dinosaurs.  That is the responsibility of paleontologists.

Age of mummy's and other things that have carbon are usually dated using carbon decay information.  An isotope of carbon has a half life of several thousand years (say 10,000 for ease of discussion).  In 10,000 years 1/2 of the isotope will decay into another isotope, In another 10,000 years 1/2 of what was left decays into the daughter isotope so there will be about 1/4 of the parent after 20,000 years.  Geochemiists simply determine the amount of the parent and daughter isotopes and the relative amoutns determimns how many half-lives have transpired then the life form died.  Once you know how many half-lives then you can figure out the age.