1. The scientific age for the Earth and the Solar system is based on the oldest meteorites, which give a age of 4.65 billion years. In a sample of 64,000 potassium and argon atoms from these meteorites, how many would be potassium and how many would be argon?
2. A very new and strange meteorite is discovered in Antartica. When scientists look at the numbers of potassium atoms and Argon atoms, they find that for every 2000 Potassium atoms, there are 62,000 Argon Atoms.
A. What is the Age of this meteorite based on this information?
B. What scientific conclusion(s) can you think of to explain this result?
3. Potassium-40 decays into Argon-40 with a half life of 1.28 billion years. On the Earth, oldest rocks found have ages of 3.8 to 3.9 billion years. If a scientist looked at a total of 64,000 Potassium and Argon atoms in these rocks, how many would be Potassium and how many would be Argon?
Please tell me which answer is for which question and explain them to me. Thanks
2007-03-22 06:45:03 · 2 answers · asked by Whale 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space