Estimate of The Earth's Age
Harrison Brown of the University of Chicago developed a new method for counting lead isotopes in igneous rocks, and assigned it to Clair Cameron Patterson as a dissertation project in 1948. During this period he operated under the assumption that meteorites are left-over materials from the creation of the Solar System, and thus by measuring the age of one of these rocks the age of the Earth would be revealed. Gathering the materials required time, and in 1953, Clair Cameron Patterson had his final specimens from the Canyon Diablo meteorite. He took them to the Argonne National Laboratory, where he was granted time on a late model mass spectrometer.
In a meeting in Wisconsin soon afterward, Patterson revealed the results of his study. The definitive age of the Earth is 4.550 billion years (give or take 70 million years). This number still stands although the margin of error is now down to about 20 million years.
Read more about this topic: Clair Cameron Patterson
Famous quotes containing the words estimate of, estimate, earth and/or age:
“The man possessed of a dollar, feels himself to be not merely one hundred cents richer, but also one hundred cents better, than the man who is penniless; so on through all the gradations of earthly possessions—the estimate of our own moral and political importance swelling always in a ratio exactly proportionate to the growth of our purse.”
—Frances Wright (1795–1852)
“It is, indeed, at home that every man must be known by those who would make a just estimate either of his virtue or felicity; for smiles and embroidery are alike occasional, and the mind is often dressed for show in painted honour, and fictitious benevolence.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!””
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 2:13,14.
“In an age of synthetic images and synthetic emotions, the chances of an accidental encounter with reality are remote indeed.”
—Serge Daney (1944–1992)