God and carbon dating
30-Apr-2020 20:46
Contamination and repeatability are also factors that have to be considered with carbon dating.A tiny amount of carbon contamination will greatly skew test results, so sample preparation is critical.Carbon dating is reliable within certain parameters but certainly not infallible.
Carbon dating therefore relies on enrichment and enhancement techniques to make smaller quantities easier to detect, but such enhancement can also skew the test results. As a result, carbon dating is only plausible for objects less than about 40,000 years old.
So even brand-new samples contain incredibly tiny quantities of radiocarbon.
Eventually, the amount of carbon-14 remaining is so small that it’s all but undetectable.
Scientists must assume how much carbon-14 was in the organism when it died.
Complicating matters is the fact that Earth’s carbon-14 concentrations change drastically based on various factors.
Modern effects such as fossil fuel burning and nuclear testing have also changed atmospheric carbon-14 levels and in turn change the “starting point” for a radiocarbon test.