questions about relative dating and absolute dating....?

Linwood Mccory: Don't date relatives -- its called incest.Date absolutely -- and exclusively; its safer!Edit:Sorry, I'm no scientist; just had to have some fun and this one was SO open!!;)...Show more

Mildred Pombo: LOL @ Lonnie P.... that is so true.But, anyway...Relative dating is determining which objects are older and younger based on their spatial relationship with other objects. For example, at an archaeological site, objects found lower in the ground are assumed to be older than objects found on top.Relative dating is cheap or even free. An archaeologist can examine objects and put them in some sort of chronological order just by looking at them and their surroundings. This is like "John has gray hair and wrinkles. He is older than Mary who has soft, pink skin and cries for her bottle," (but you can't say how much older he is).Absolute dating uses radioisotopes to determine an age in years. This is expensive, as it requires sophisticated equipment like m! ass spectrometers and things, as well as finding testable materials that meet strict criteria. This is like "John is 72 years old, Mary is only 1 year old."If an object is found between two other objects for which a known age can be determined, then absolute dating probably isn't necessary. This is like "if object A is known to be about 100 years old and object C is known to be about 150 years old, then object B between then is between 100 and 150 years old." If a more specific age is needed, then absolute dating can be used (if funds are available to do so).If no other objects are found, then absolute dating would probably be necessary. Archaeologists may use relative dating to make a sketch of history at the site, and then perhaps later may do absolute dating to fill in the details....Show more

Miguel Koczela: Archaeologists, like geologists, use both relative and absolute dating.Relative dating can be used (for instance) if an archaeologist has worked out from ! his/her excavations a progression of pottery styles that chang! e and progress from the deepest levels of a dig (deposited first) to levels higher up (more recent). Say that he/she finds that there are 4 styles of pottery, with 1 being the lowest and 4 being the highest in the stratigraphy. Everywhere he/she finds pottery #2, it could be assumed that these strata are the same age (unless disturbed - which happens by later people digging into the strata and whantnot).Radiocarbon can be used to absolutely date a level if, for instance, a fire hearth or piece of cloth is found.The combination of these two (using my example - pottery and carbon dating of charcoal from hearths) can be used to say.."I found pottery #3 and charcoal dated at 3200 BC together in the same layer over there. I just found pottery #3 in my current location, so the layer probably dates at 3200 BC).I hope this makes sense....Show more

Foster Padgette: highly compatible matches for yourdating partnerathttp://matchingsites.com/

Adrian Paraz: Just to add a ! little bit, sometimes it is impossible to accurately date things using radiogenic techniques (wrong chemistry for whatever reason), in which case only relative dating will give useful information.