To as the parent and the following decay products are referred These scientists and many more after them discovered thatĪtoms of uranium, radium and several other radioactive materialsĪre unstable and disintegrate spontaneously and consistentlyįorming atoms of different elements and emitting radiation,Ī form of energy in the process. When Rutherford announced his findings it soon becameĬlear that Earth is millions of years old. For theįirst time he was able to exactly measure the age of a uranium Rock could be measured by means of radioactivity. Rutherford, suggested in 1905 that the exact age of a The realisation that radioactive materials emit rays indicatedĪ constant change of those materials from one element to another. Shortly after Becquerel's find, MarieĬurie, a French chemist, isolated another highly radioactive The discoveryīecquerel, in 1896 paved the way of measuring absolute Ways to accurately measure geological time. Since the early twentieth century scientists have found
