The greatest invention of human kind. What say you?

[sayak83]

Do you understand how carbon dating is done? No disrespect intended. I am only trying to explain my point. I am sure you understand this very well.

Since you asked.

Yes. You evaluate how much mass of C14 is there vs how much is expected if it were a fresh sample. The ratio is correlated with an exponential decay function and time since it's original life is determined.

 

[firedragon]

Yes. You evaluate how much mass of C14 is there vs how much is expected if it were a fresh sample. The ratio is correlated with an exponential decay function and time since it's original life is determined.

Right. So is that a division or a reduction?

 

[Mock Turtle]

This takes you to the old debate of whether maths was invented or discovered.

There is no scholarly consensus on this.

Probably a bit of both, given that much that is useful probably is not as rigorous as that in pure mathematics. But anything I learned has long gone, even if I was quite good at maths so as it not to present any problems. I did read a history of mathematics some time back, lost the author, and that was certainly worth a read.

 

[sayak83]

Right. So is that a division or a reduction?

I do not understand the question. It can be both.
C(t) = C(0) exp(-t/t_o) where C(t) is concentration at t and C(0) the initial concentration. This is only a statistical model valid for large population sizes of the radioactive molecule and does not work when the population size is small (as is the case for most statistical models).

 

[firedragon]

I do not understand the question. It can be both.
C(t) = C(0) exp(-t/t_o) where C(t) is concentration at t and C(0) the initial concentration. This is only a statistical model valid for large population sizes of the radioactive molecule and does not work when the population size is small (as is the case for most statistical models).

Its a division.

 

[sayak83]

Its a division.

Is this going somewhere?

 

[firedragon]

Is this going somewhere?

Honestly Sayak, I doubt you have the patience or the humility to simply understand what I said. It was not meant as a debate because there is nothing to debate. So I shall respectfully withdraw from this discussion. Thank you very much for engaging.

 

[juberlock]

I came here to say something similar with the Steam Engine, but I think the generator might capture my feelings better. The whole idea of constant accessible energy really changed the world. Farming is pretty high up there, but that is just humans finding a reliable source of energy to power Speed Test themselves. Now we can power so much more.