The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom determines the element.Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. 1979, 1986 © Harper Collins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 Cite This Source (rā'dē-ō-mět'rĭk) A method for determining the age of an object based on the concentration of a particular radioactive isotope contained within it.For students, understanding the general architecture of the atom and the roles played by the main constituents of the atom in determining the properties of materials now becomes relevant.Having learned earlier that all the atoms of an element are identical and are different from those of all other elements, students now come up against the idea that, on the contrary, atoms of the same element can differ in important ways. 79.) In this lesson, students will be asked to consider the case of when Frosty the Snowman met his demise (began to melt).With our focus on one particular form of radiometric dating—carbon dating—we will see that carbon dating strongly supports a young earth.Note that, contrary to a popular misconception, carbon dating is not used to date rocks at millions of years old.

This has caused many in the church to reevaluate the biblical creation account, specifically the meaning of the word “day” in Genesis 1.The exercise they will go through of working backwards from measurements to age should help them understand how scientists use carbon dating to try to determine the age of fossils and other materials.To be able to do this lesson and understand the idea of half-life, students should understand ratios and the multiplication of fractions, and be somewhat comfortable with probability.For inorganic materials, such as rocks containing the radioactive isotope rubidium, the amount of the isotope in the object is compared to the amount of the isotope's decay products (in this case strontium).The object's approximate age can then be figured out using the known rate of decay of the isotope.