Editing Nucleocosmochronology (section)

== Technique ==
It is necessarily to know the initial ratios by which nucleosynthesis produce radioactive parent elements in comparison to the stable elements they decay to, before decay occurs.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Clayton |first=Donald D. |url=https://openlibrary.org/books/OL1544183M/The_Astronomy_and_astrophysics_encyclopedia |title=The Astronomy and astrophysics encyclopedia |date=1992 |publisher=Van Nostrand Reinhold |isbn=978-0-442-26364-5 |editor-last=Maran |editor-first=Stephen P. |location=New York |chapter=Cosmology, Cosmochronology |ol=1544183M |chapter-url=https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/ESSAYS/Clayton/clayton.html}}</ref> These are the abundances which the elements would have if the radioactive parent elements were stable, and not producing daughter nuclei.<ref name=":2" /> The ratio of the abundance of radioactive elements to the abundance they would have if they were stable is called the remainder.<ref name=":2" /> Measurement of the current abundances of elements in objects, combined with nucleosynthesis theory, determines the remainders.<ref name=":2" />