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Posted on 11/29/2017 10:41:38 AM PST by fishtank
Lightning Can Produce Carbon-14
November 29, 2017 | David F. Coppedge
In a surprise announcement, Japanese researchers found that lightning bolts can be powerful enough to cause nuclear fission, leading to new isotopes— including carbon-14.
For decades, we have been told that carbon-14 is generated only by high-energy cosmic rays striking the atmosphere, hitting nitrogen atoms. Carbon-14 (14C) is one of the leading dating methods for organic remains up to a maximum of 100,000 years. Now, researches from the Kyoto University watched lightning bolts generate gamma rays and positrons, indicating that nuclear fission was occurring. One of the products, they believe, is 14C. Their paper in Nature says,
(Excerpt) Read more at crev.info ...
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If, because of lightning, there is more C14 than estimated, that only makes things OLDER than previously thought.
So, a lightning-plagued cemetery could contain the next Lucy?
Lightning strikes do MUCH more impact on the Earth than most realize. Enrichening the soil, creating ozone... so the effect on carbon-14 in regard to dating will arguably be worth considering.
More C14 in an organism's remains would theoretically make something old look younger. But the dead are not the ones ingesting the C14. So I don't think it would have any effect on what was measured in the grave yard unless the C14 was somehow put into the structure of the remains.
I am not sure how lightning causing C14 would make much difference unless when the organism was alive it was around lightning so often it had more C14 than other organisms would who were not near where lightning happened. In that case it would make the organism look older than it was....but if this is the case, I would want to know of a study that confirms it before I change my opinion about carbon dating.
What is measured is how many C14 isotopes one has compared to normal carbon atoms. The idea is that there is a certain amount of C14 us living organisms ingest from the environment as we breath and eat. But when e stop living we stop ingesting, and the C14 to regular carbon atom ratio declines as the C14 isotopes become regular carbon atoms at a curved rate of declining decay determined by their half life of around 5730 years.
Thus to estimate age one presumes that there was more or less a certain amount of C14 to carbon ratio in the environment that would come to be reflected to some degree by the organism when its alive, and then one supposes that rate of exchange stops happening when its dead, and we can estimate based on this how long ago it died.
I was 7 years old and came upon the article about radiocarbon in the World Book Encyclopedia. It had illustrations about how carbon dating works, how carbon-14 is absorbed by an organism and then the date of death can be calculated by how much remains in the skeleton.
The article also introduced me to the term "half-life". And to drive home the point it had a drawing of a human skull gradually decaying in a way that not even Wes Craven could conceive.
Interesting.
So, that suggests we should “date” voters. If they have no C14 at all, they are probably ineligible to be voting (and would be voting ‘Rat).
Carbon 14 decays into Nitrogen (14) by beta-emission (going from 6 protons, which is what really makes it Carbon in the first place, to 7 protons, which makes it Nitrogen, as one neutron gives up an electron to become a proton).
More 14C will make something seem younger, not older.
The rate of decay of any radioactive element is a constant particular to that isotope. The half-life is the time for half of what ever you started out with to decay. It doesn't matter how much it was; half will be gone. In the case of 14C, that half-life is, as you stated, around 5730 years, and does not change. This last point is just a clarification of your statement.
But your main point, that lightning isn't going to create the next Lucy, is accurate. Something alive would need to spend a lot of time in the near proximity of lightning for there to be any such effect through normal absorption. Simply isn't going to happen outside of Frankenstein's lab.
/bingo
Great line! lol Unfortnuately, detection of phone bills in coffins will be enough to keep ‘em voting.
As for C14, I don’t believe it is fully accurate by any means, but what is important to Darwinists is to use any pseudo-scientific BS to “prove” to the gullible that there is no need for God.
BTW, crev.info is a truly outstanding site.
Young earthers on a tear, because they don’t understand how radiocarbon dating works. Bless their hearts.
In Tampa, Lightning win games... :-). Be the Thunder!!
Go Bolts!
5.56mm
But the ratio between C14 and normal Carbon will decline on a curve, not linearly due to half life. If I start with 1024 marbles and every day somebody takes away half of them the sequence would be:
day 1: 1024
day 2: 512
day 3: 256
day 4: 128
day 5: 64
day 6: 32
day 7: 16
day 8: 8
day 9: 4
day 19: 2
day 20: 1
Between day 1 and 2 I lost 512 marbles. Between day 19 and 20 I only lost 1. Thus if I chart the number of marbles divided by some constant denominator or any other constant unit, I will have a curve that declines more quickly and than slows its decline. The half life is a constant sure, but the half life is the second derivative. The first derivative is not constant.
The universe is 6000 years old.
The remains of Moses, if they can be found, would have lost only about half of the C14 he had when alive by now....I humbly suggest requiring someone to be alive an breathing with a valid ID would be a better system.
I honestly don’t follow.
Sorry.... multitasking today.
You are not alone in that assessment, but I am afraid I think that is not very likely to be true. The universe at least appears to be far older. I can suppose it true that God simply created it 6000 years ago so that it would simply look older than it is. But why would He? Its not like He has to wait around and be patient. He can create it with a back story like an author writing a book.
Consider JRR Tolkien creating the history of Middle Earth. He is not in the timeline of Middle Earth, he transcends it. The history of Middle Earth is far longer than however long JRR Tolikein spent dreaming it up.
Look at it from God's point of view in the narrative in Genesis that had the six days of creation. God was taking actions in those days. But God does not operate within our timeline. He transcends time and space and is eternal.
Now a human author writing a fantasy book can only put in a make-believe back story to their fictional world. I expect God would put in a real one. But I can't prove that contention. God is a heck of a lot smarter than me, and does as He wills.
Except, that apparently is not working. Hence, the thought to use C14. Whatever works, eh?
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