How old is this planet ?

[joepole]

Carbon dating is never used by any respectable scientist (or any scientists that I've ever heard) to date things to millions of years. C14 dating can place a formerly organic artifact at a max of about 40-60,000 years, (7-10 half-lives).

A million years would be 175 half-lives, meaning you would be working with 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0479 % of the original material, meaning about one atom left for every 20,000 tons of original material.

[Isaac-Saxxon]

This is just what I was looking for ! Some input from a analytical point of view. This is something that I would not pick up studying history books.
This will change the way I look at science. Thank you !
Isaac-Saxxon

[LateNight]

Originally Posted by joepole

Carbon dating is never used by any respectable scientist (or any scientists that I've ever heard) to date things to millions of years. C14 dating can place a formerly organic artifact at a max of about 40-60,000 years, (7-10 half-lives).

A million years would be 175 half-lives, meaning you would be working with 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0479 % of the original material, meaning about one atom left for every 20,000 tons of original material.

so is there a better more accurate way of dating something millions of years old ?

[joepole]

Uranium-based techniques (Uranium-Thorium or Uranium-Lead) are good for old atrifacts, but aren't always doable.

Google "geochronology" for more info.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geochronology