Which dating method relies on the decay of radioactive elements and provides an absolute age?

• A. Radiometric dating
• B. Relative dating
• C. Molecular clocks
• D. Convergent evolution

Answer: (A)

Radiometric dating uses the decay of radioactive elements to determine an absolute age. Unstable isotopes slowly convert into stable daughter products at a known rate, described by the half-life. By measuring how much parent remains versus how much daughter has formed, you can calculate the exact time since the material formed, giving a numerical age in years. This is what makes it an absolute dating method, not just a way to compare which events happened before others. For example, uranium-lead dating can reveal ages of billions of years for rocks, while carbon-14 dating helps date relatively more recent organic material. Other approaches, like relative dating, only tell which events occurred before or after others without stating an exact age; molecular clocks infer timing of evolutionary divergences from genetic data, not direct ages of rocks; and convergent evolution is a concept about similar traits evolving independently, not a dating technique.