How do meteorites help us date the age of the earth?
Linda, that was not a very educated answer, so I suggest that you go to school for a little bit longer before you become a geologist. Anyways, you had it partially correct, but a little bit misguided. By dating a meteorite scientists can tell how old the meteorite is, but cannot determine how old the earth is from just that. They can find this out by determining where the meteorite was found. For example, at a dig site, a meteorite was found in a layer of soil known to be from a certain era. The scientist can then determine that the meteorite struck the earth during that period of time.
