"Real" ringworlds

[Suicide Junkie]

Originally posted by Aloofi:

quote:

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Yes, it can be proven.

Calculating the age of a rock (or any old object) requires careful calculations involving the rates of isotopic decays and the average rates of increase of the levels of those isotopes. .

Don't you get it?
How can you be sure that the decay of isotops is constant, or that is not affected by wether?
How can you prove that 5 isotops means 5 years or whatever?
Nobody have taken a time machine to go back and make sure that all those time measuring "theories" actually work!!!

Am I the only one that sees a problem here?

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You can start with tree rings... One ring per year, match up the patterns of older trees with younger trees, to form a chain thousands of years back.

With a known age for an ancient fossilized tree, and the fixed decay rate of radioactive isotopes, you can find out the concentrations of the various isotopes in the biosphere at the time (It varies up and down).

With a curvy map of the isotope concentrations over time, and an unknown sample rock, you can find where the decay curve and the starting concentration curve intersect, giving you a date range.

Multiple samples and various statistical methods give you better certainty and accuracy.