What is the margin of error for absolute dating

Question

please all geoligist answer

Answer 1

The error margin depends on the age of the rocks and the method used.  For very old rocks the error bars will be bigger, but the percentage error will be much the same as that for much younger rocks, and generally only a few percentage points at the most..  

Answer 2

A usual rule of thumb is to allow a couple of percent either way.  In most cases, that's precise enough.  If remains from a particular locality are 72, 70 or 68 million years old, the discrepancies really aren't of interest.

Those discrepencies could be of more concern to people who actually do radiometric dating.  They aren't usually geologists.  Rather, geologists may send them samples to date.

Answer 3

Depends upon the process used to date the matterial and which time scale you use.  Remember, the process maybe refered to as absolute, but it still yeilds an estimate.

Absolute Dating

http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0857...