The Age of the Earth + Scientific Method

Question 1

James Ussher

Answer 1

• Archbishop of Armagh
• Published a book proposing the Earth was created on Sunday, October 23, 4004 BCE
• Counting generations in bible(from Adam + Eve onward), he calculated the age of the Earth to be about 6022 years old
• Did not follow scientific method- generated hypothesis, failed to test it

Question 2

James Hutton and Charles Lyell

Answer 2

• Leaders of geology
• Carefully studied rocks in a rigorous, scientific matter
• Realized the thick sedimentary rock layers require millions of years to deposit these sediments into rivers, lakes, and oceans- thus the Earth must be at least that old

Question 3

Charles Darwin

Answer 3

Evolution theory: the Earth must be hundreds of millions of years old because it would take that long to produce the diverse life forms visible from the fossil record

Question 4

Lord Kelvin

Answer 4

1) Believed the Earth would have cooled from an initially molten state to its present external temperature in only 20-40 million years
2) Believed the Earth the sun was powered by the conversation of gravitational energy to heat and could only have been doing this for 10-100 million years

Question 5

Radioactive decay

Answer 5

Scientists discovered that some elements are unstable and spontaneity decay to form more stable elements

Question 6

How do scientists know how old the Earth is?

Answer 6

An analyses of radioactive elements in meteorites that were formed at the exact same time as Earth have repeatedly shown the Earth and other planets to be 4.6 billion years old

Question 7

Scientific Method

Answer 7

1) Statement of problem
2) Collect info related to problem
3) Create hypothesis (“educated guess”)
4) Test Hypothesis
5) If it passes, hypothesis becomes accepted fact or theory

Question 8

Order of theories + age

Answer 8

1) James Ussher: 6022 years
2) James Hutton and Charles Lyell: millions of years
3) Charles Darwin: hundreds of millions of years
4) Lord Kelvin: 10-100 million years