Radiometric Dating

Real World Example

Imagine you're trying to determine how long a candle has been burning by looking at the amount of wax that's left compared to the melted wax. Just like you can estimate the candle's burn time by comparing the remaining wax to what's been melted away, scientists use radiometric dating to determine a rock's age by comparing the amount of radioactive isotopes (like the wax left) to the nonradioactive isotopes (like the melted wax). In this analogy, the burning candle represents the transformation process, where the wax turning into melted wax mirrors the radioactive isotope decaying into a nonradioactive form, allowing us to gauge how much time has passed since the process began.