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The chronologers' quest [electronic resource] : episodes in the search for the age of the earth / Patrick Wyse Jackson.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2006.Description: 1 online resource (xvii, 291 pages) : illustrations, mapsContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • computer
Carrier type:
  • online resource
ISBN:
  • 9780511242090
  • 0511242093
  • 0511239521
  • 9780511239526
  • 0511247257
  • 9780511247255
  • 0511240457
  • 9780511240454
  • 051124097X
  • 9780511240973
  • 0511241496
  • 9780511241499
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Additional physical formats: Print version:: Chronologers' quest.DDC classification:
  • 551.7/01 22
LOC classification:
  • QE508 .W97 2006eb
Online resources:
Contents:
The ancients : early chronologies -- Biblical calculations -- Models of Aristotelian infinity and sacred theories of the Earth -- Falling stones, salty oceans, and evaporating waters : early empirical measurements of the age of the Earth -- Thinking in layers : early ideas in stratigraphy -- An infinite and cyclical Earth and religious orthodoxy -- The cooling Earth -- Stratigraphical laws, uniformitarianism and the development of the geological column -- 'Formed stones' and their subsequent role in biostratigraphy and evolutionary theory -- The hour-glass of accumulated or denuded sediments -- Thermodynamics and the cooling Earth revisited -- Oceanic salination reconsidered -- Radioactivity : invisible geochronometers -- The universal problem and duck soup.
Summary: The debate over the age of the Earth has been ongoing for over two thousand years, and has pitted physicists and astronomers against biologists, religious philosophers against geologists. The Chronologers' Quest tells the story of our attempts to determine the age of the Earth. This book investigates the many novel methods used in the search for the Earth's age, from James Ussher and John Lightfoot examining biblical chronologies, Comte de Buffon and Lord Kelvin determining the length of time for the cooling of the Earth, to the more recent investigations of Arthur Holmes and Clair Patterson into radioactive dating of rocks and meteorites.
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
eBook eBook e-Library EBSCO Science Available
Total holds: 0

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The ancients : early chronologies -- Biblical calculations -- Models of Aristotelian infinity and sacred theories of the Earth -- Falling stones, salty oceans, and evaporating waters : early empirical measurements of the age of the Earth -- Thinking in layers : early ideas in stratigraphy -- An infinite and cyclical Earth and religious orthodoxy -- The cooling Earth -- Stratigraphical laws, uniformitarianism and the development of the geological column -- 'Formed stones' and their subsequent role in biostratigraphy and evolutionary theory -- The hour-glass of accumulated or denuded sediments -- Thermodynamics and the cooling Earth revisited -- Oceanic salination reconsidered -- Radioactivity : invisible geochronometers -- The universal problem and duck soup.

The debate over the age of the Earth has been ongoing for over two thousand years, and has pitted physicists and astronomers against biologists, religious philosophers against geologists. The Chronologers' Quest tells the story of our attempts to determine the age of the Earth. This book investigates the many novel methods used in the search for the Earth's age, from James Ussher and John Lightfoot examining biblical chronologies, Comte de Buffon and Lord Kelvin determining the length of time for the cooling of the Earth, to the more recent investigations of Arthur Holmes and Clair Patterson into radioactive dating of rocks and meteorites.

Print version record.

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