How many candles should we put (Earth)

[zipo29]

i've got a quick question on the earth for all you scientests out there. How do we determine the age of the earth? we know that carbon dating is inaccurate with factors such as cosmic rays and water so how reliable is it? Any other ways we can tell if the earth is 6000 or 4 billion years old?

[(Q)]

Isotope decay found in elements on the Earth and in meteorites. All are dated within a 1% margin of error with ages calculated to around 3.9-4.5 billion years.

The formula for relating isotope decay to geological time is:

t = 1/pi *ln (1 + D/P)

t is the age of rock or mineral
D is the number of atoms in a daughter product*
P is the number of atoms of the parent isotope
ln is the natural logarithm
pi is the the decay constant

* Example: The parent isotope of the daughter product of lead is U-238 and has a half-life of 4.5 billion years.

[Ceridwen018]

That was very impressive Q.

zipo29, do you belive the earth is only 6000 years old?