How long did you have this meme parked until it finally worked?
This isn't going to age well is it...
Also, if you didn’t count the rings then you don’t know how old the tree is. I don’t care how old your uncle thinks it is. You have no idea how often this comes up and how many completely implausible tree ages are just posted as fact on the internet.
It's not like this is the only way to estimate the age of a tree
It’s the main accurate way, at least for living trees. By the way, I’m including cross-dating here since even though it’s slightly different from ring counting, it uses the same basic idea just extended to a wider group of trees.
There are other methods but none really have a proven track record of accuracy the way tree-ring based methods do.
For well documented trees that coexisted with literate cultures, historical records can be used, though these records can sometimes be wrong. Some trees have ages from oral tradition too but these are difficult to verify.
Overall, I view non-ring-based methods with skepticism and some are outright preposterous, especially the common claims you see online which have no methodology listed. But even some published estimates using alternative techniques seem dubious. Perhaps they will be replicated and proven in the future but the evidence is tenuous today.
It's how we calibrate radiocarbon dates. :) I make the computer do it though.
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This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
