Familiar to us as the black substance in charred wood, as diamonds, and the graphite in “lead” pencils, carbon comes in several forms, or isotopes.
One rare form has atoms that are 14 times as heavy as hydrogen atoms: carbon-14, or C ratio gets smaller.
Potassium can be mobilized into or out of a rock or mineral through alteration processes.
Due to the relatively heavy atomic weight of potassium, insignificant fractionation of the different potassium isotopes occurs.
The method relies on satisfying some important assumptions: Given careful work in the field and in the lab, these assumptions can be met.
The rock sample to be dated must be chosen very carefully.
People wonder how millions of years could be squeezed into the biblical account of history. Christians, by definition, take the statements of Jesus Christ seriously.The isotopes the KAr system relies on are Potassium (K) and Argon (Ar).Potassium, an alkali metal, the Earth's eighth most abundant element is common in many rocks and rock-forming minerals.The idea behind radiocarbon dating is straightforward, but years of work were required to develop the technique to the point where accurate dates could be obtained.Research has been ongoing since the 1960s to determine what the proportion of in the atmosphere has been over the past fifty thousand years.