Free 5-day trial Radiometric dating is used to estimate the age of rocks and other objects based on the fixed decay rate of radioactive isotopes.Learn about half-life and how it is used in different dating methods, such as uranium-lead dating and radiocarbon dating, in this video lesson. As we age, our hair turns gray, our skin wrinkles and our gait slows.Radiometric dating, or radioactive dating as it is sometimes called, is a method used to date rocks and other objects based on the known decay rate of radioactive isotopes.Different methods of radiometric dating can be used to estimate the age of a variety of natural and even man-made materials.With rubidium-strontium dating, we see that rubidium-87 decays into strontium-87 with a half-life of 50 billion years.
Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you succeed.In fact, this form of dating has been used to date the age of rocks brought back to Earth from the moon.So, we see there are a number of different methods for dating rocks and other non-living things, but what if our sample is organic in nature?So, if you know the radioactive isotope found in a substance and the isotope's half-life, you can calculate the age of the substance. Well, a simple explanation is that it is the time required for a quantity to fall to half of its starting value.So, you might say that the 'full-life' of a radioactive isotope ends when it has given off all of its radiation and reaches a point of being non-radioactive.