MTTC Integrated Science (Secondary) (094) Practice Test

Understanding when things happened in time often comes down to whether we need a number or just an order. Absolute dating provides numeric ages in years by measuring radioactive decay in rocks or fossils and applying known decay rates. This tells you exactly how long ago a rock formed or an event occurred, within the method’s limits and accuracy. Relative dating, on the other hand, determines the sequence of events without exact numbers. It uses clues like which rock layer is on top of another, how layers cross-cut each other, inclusions, and fossil succession to decide which events happened first. Radiometric dating is a tool used in absolute dating to assign those numeric ages, not for ordering events in a sequence. Likewise, fossil color isn’t a recognized method for dating. So the defining difference is that absolute dating yields specific numeric ages in years.