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Overview

What's all this about then? - A brief overview.

A Nineteenth Century Problem

Scientific problems are quandries posed in context. The environment of society (politico-economic) and knowledge (ratioanal-theoretical) affect how questions are posed and the methods which are considered acceptable to answer the question.

In the nineteenth century the Age of the Earth was a matter for empirical inquiry. The epistemic winds blew in the direction of scientific investigation, having previously favoured religious scholarship. Verious traditions sought to answer the question by differeing methods. Thus the context for a contest which would last over half a century was set.

Possible Answers

The Problem: What is the Age of the Earth?

Contemorary Methods:

  • Biblical:

    • Measurement: Biblical record
    • Theory & Auxiliary: Biblical exegesis, average time for generation
    • Estimate(s): ~4000 - ~6000 years old

  • Geological:

    • Measurement: Surface of the Earth (stratifications, denudation & sedimentation rates, salination of waters, etc.)
    • Theory & Auxiliary: Geoplogical processes (denudation, sedimentation, sodium accumulation)
    • Estimate(s): Unquantifiably old (maybe infinite), very old (maybe uncountably), many millions tp many billions of years

  • Kelvin's Quantification:

    • Measurement: Temperature of the Earth
    • Theory & Auxiliary: Thermodynamics, Nebular theory of Solar System
    • Estimate: A quantifiable number 100 (20-500) million years

A Nineteenth Century Debate

The controversy is decribed in Lord Kelvin and the Age of the Earth (link). It explains how Lord Kelvin (William Thomson) was a chief contestant in a dispute with Geologists over the Age of the Earth.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century most geologists considered the Earth unfathomably old. Their methods of estimation were based on the slow rates of erosion and denudation of vast landscapes.

Around the moddle of the nineteenth century William Thomson provided an argument for a much more limited estimation of the Earth's antiquity: ~100 million years. He used thermodynamics (and some reaonable assumptions) to estimate:

- Solar system came from collapse of nebular gas cloud due to gravity
- Energy from friction of coalescing matter
- Densest in centre (Sun) with other dense bodies around (inc. Earth)
- Estimate age of Earth (and Sun) from cooling

The debate devoloped over decades:

- Physicists joined for Kelvin
- Geologists slowly stopped disagreeing
- Biologists became involved along the way (evolution baby!)

By the end of the nineteenth century the dispute settled in favour of Thomson's estimate [^1].

Critical Perspective

During the nineteenth, sciences engaged in the question of the Age of the Earth (i.e. physics, geology and associated technologies) did not stop for the dispute to be resolved, or pause activities while disiputants corresponded; on the contrary, it thrived!

  • Disputes took place
  • Theories were proposed & experimental techniques developed
  • Matters were resolved

Scientific Paradigms flourished, and scientists agreed the facts.

150 years later we don’t agree, not even close: 100m years ➡ 4.5b years.

Today, C21 Science is thriving:

  • Disputes take place
  • Theories are proposed and experimental techniques develop
  • Matters are resolved

Scientific Paradigms are flourishing, and scientists agree facts.

What about in 150 years?

This is not what we now consider accurate (spoiler: radio-activity).