ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Chronological dating

Chronological dating is a way that scientists can figure out when things happened a long, long time ago. Scientists who study history, rocks, fossils or other things try to figure out what order events happened in. Just like when you put pictures of your vacation in a photo album in order of when you took them, scientists try to put events that happened in order too.

So, how do they do it? There are a few different ways. One way is by using something called "relative dating," which means figuring out which event happened first, second, third, and so on. Another way is by using "absolute dating," which tries to figure out exactly how long ago something happened.

For absolute dating, they use things like carbon dating, which is a way to figure out the age of something that's been dead for a long time. They also use things like tree rings or ice cores to figure out how old something is.

Overall, chronological dating is just a fancy way of figuring out when things happened a long time ago. Scientists use different methods to put events in order and figure out how long ago something happened, just like you put your vacation photos in order and remember when each one was taken.