Someone will need to help me remember where the original post is. There was a great post awhile back where someone described how we were able to test that radioactive decay rates were the same in the past as they are today by examining the decay of short half life elements during a recent super nova.
I remember that it was a very good treatment of the topic especially in explaining that the result did not depend on the speed of light or rather that it also was evidence for the consistency of the speed of light. I can't remember which.
Anyhow. Somewhere on this board there was a post that made this argument. Thus we know that decay rates are constant. Thus there is additional evidence besides the existing correlations that radiometric dating is in built upon a solid fact that decay rates do not change.
This is all to point out that sometimes uniformity is not an assumption but rather an observation.
{ABE}
Ahh! Found it! It was right there in front of me!
Message 1
It is not just 1 post but rather a few posts on the topic of the nova. You'll need to read at least the first 2-4 pages.
This message has been edited by Jazzns, 09-21-2005 08:42 AM
No smoking signs by gas stations. No religion in the public square. The government should keep us from being engulfed in flames on earth, and that is pretty much it. -- Jon Stewart, The Daily Show