When rocks are formed, small amounts of radioactive elements usually get included. As time passes, the "parent" radioactive element (which is uranium in this case) changes at a regular rate into non-radioactive "daughter" element (which is uranium in this case). Thus, the older a rock is, the larger the number of daughter atoms and the smaller the number of parent atoms are found in the rock. In this case as the rock ages, more and more of the uranium changes into lead.The of the rock in years can be found by measuring the rate at which a uranium decays and then measuring the ratio of uranium to lead in the rock.
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