Friday, January 14, 2011

Carbon-14 Dating - Fact and Fiction

Carbon-14 Dating - Fact and Fiction


Today many people believe Carbon-14 dating is solid, irrefutable evidence for long ages. Is this true? In this actual Documentary by AlphaNOVA, you will find the actual process of Carbon-14 dating. It just may surprise you.

Today, there are over 130 radiocarbon dating laboratories around the world producing radiocarbon assays for the scientific community. The C14 technique has been and continues to be applied and used in many, many different fields including hydrology, atmospheric science, oceanography, geology, palaeoclimatology, archaeology and biomedicine.

The radiocarbon method was developed by a team of scientists led by the late Professor Willard F. Libby of the University of Chicago in immediate post-WW2 years. Libby later received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1960.


Dating The Sample - Using the actual samples from Route Ice 77
Step 1: Weigh & Clean - Isolating a 5o gram sample.
Step 2: Powder the coal - Use a hammer of course. Using Hydrochloric Acid to see if carbonate is coming off (see bubbles if there's any). Stirring it via magnetic Stir will continue to remove carbonates. Then heat it by 80 Degrees Centigrade 24Hours to remove the acid avoiding any reaction.
Step 3: Clean Again - Filtering the sample, washing it via Sodium Hydroxide to remove humic acids. Mixing it again 10min, and baked it again in the oven 24 hours. After cleaning it twice and baking it 24 hours. It's time to make this as charcoal via heating the powdered sample. Until it's almost ash. Then using the Oxidiser, it will convert it to Carbon Dioxide, isolating the Carbon Dioxide by a special chemical that reacts with it.

Step 4: Burn to Carbon Dioxide
Step 5: Analyze in Liquid Scintillation Counter (LSC). An apparatus will hold the sample vials. When both of the tubes see a flash simultaneously that's the count.

Step 6: Calculate Age - The Radio Carbon date in the coal is 10,412 years with the Uniformitarian's assumption. But with Biblical assumptions with Dinosaur's time (lush of vegetation) the Radio Carbon Date to 4,682. With great atmospheric pressure in Adam's time - age will be 7,060 for the coal.

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