How do they calculate how old the Earth is and if they are wrong what doe's that mean for use?

Question

How do they calculate how old the Earth is and if they are wrong what doe's that mean for use?

Answer 1

They are calculating  the age of earth by examining the rocks...We cannot say  that  they are absolutely correct ..but we should wait  for someone who disproves the current and shows a new result

Answer 2

Most people would say that they would find the age by the study of the crust of the earth. and if their wrong, then that just means that the Earth would be much older than we figured. In my opinion, the earth could be much older than we anticipated. Honestly, I also don't really give it much thought because humans usually live to see 100 if their lucky. So everyone we know would be dead LONG before we would see the sun turn earth into another mercury.

Answer 3

It doesn't really matter cause i'm still here now so there's not much you can do about it

Answer 4

I have read in An encyclopedia that earth is 4.6 billion years old

Answer 5

We can calculate how old the Earth is by determining how long it would take to cool down to its present state.  Usually, scientist consider both the initial heat generated at the formation of the planet plus the heat generated by natural radioative decay.  The current estimate is around 4.5 billion years.

Answer 6

Imagine the Earth forms from gas and dust circling the newly forming Sun.  A clump forms and gathers more stuff.  The whole thing cools, life develops and we look for spot of Uranium.  It's reasonable to assume that the Uranium was only Uranium when the Earth formed.  But Uranium decays at a known rate, and produces other elements.  One of the long lasting results is lead.  By comparing the amount of Uranium to the amount of lead, one can tell how long the Uranium must have been sitting there.  Repeat this experiment in different spots to avoid getting answers that violate the original assumptions.  If the numbers have good agreement, you can be confident that you have found an age for the Earth.

Answer 7

The age of the Earth was determined by radiometric dating. We know the half-lifes of various isotopes, by analysing rocks and the isotopes contained within, we can estimate how old those rocks are.  It is believed that the Earth formed at the same time as every other object in the solar system. By analysing the oldest rocks in the solar system - meteorites - we can place a pretty accurate estimate on the age of the Earth, as it obviously can't be older than the solar system itself.

If our measurements were wrong, it would set science back a hundred years. Fortunately, radiometric dating is a tried and tested means of determining age. The scientific debate over the age of the Earth was settled in the early part of the twentieth century.

Answer 8

THEY MEASURE WITH RESPECT TO THE BIG BANG THEORY BEC ITS THOUGHT THAT THE ORIGIN OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM TOOK PLACE AT THAT TIME.IT IS ESTIMATED TO BE 4.5 MILLION YEARS OLD.

Answer 9

how old the rock is you can tell by tokes ,but how long it took to cool down from a plasma state to rock is unknown