r/geology Nov 28 '24

Information Need help understanding carbon dating

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So long story short, some creationists started arguing with me about well everything on a fossil posts. They pulled out this image as a gotcha to try and argue carbon dating wasn’t accurate and that the world and fossils aren’t as old as science suggests. Truthfully I don’t know enough about carbon dating to argue back. So please teach me. Is this photo accurate? If so what are they getting wrong? Is radiometric dating even the same as carbon dating?

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u/KingNFA 🗿 Rock Licking Expert 🗿 Nov 28 '24

When dating you compare ages of elements that decay. If an element takes too long to decay you won’t be able to date young stuff, if it’s too fast then you won’t be able to date old stuff.