Can relative age dating be used to determine the age of the universe?

Answer 1

Simple Answer:

Relative age dating is usually in the domain of geology, archeology and Paleontology. Relative age dating alone does not give the age of an object or the date of an even, just the relative ordering in time.

More:

The principles of relative age dating can, however, be applied to cosmology. The basic principle is that one uses characteristics of objects to identify whether one object is is older than another, and then arranging them in chronological order.

Alone, relative age dating can not be used to determine the age of the universe or anything else, but with some knowledge of absolute age one can arrive at statements like, event B must have come after event A and event A is a known date, so event B must be at an earlier date.

For instance, the universe must be older than the Earth. The Earth can be dated to about 4.5 billion years in age, therefore the Universe must be older than 4.5 billion Years. If, one adds to that the one knows that the light from a distant galaxy takes a 10 billion years to reach Earth, then the galaxy, and hence the Universe must be more than 10 billion years old.

Answer 2

No, relative age dating cannot be used to determine the age of the universe. Relative age dating is a method used to determine the relative order of events or objects in geology or paleontology. To determine the age of the universe, scientists use various methods such as the measurement of the cosmic microwave background radiation and the analysis of the redshift of galaxies.