Charlotte Reynolds                                                                                                 December 10, 2012

C Even                                                                                                                                Ms. Davies

End of the World Seminar

            After listening to Dr. Scott Calvin’s seminar on the end of the world, I received a different perspective on our country’s dating system. For example, our months and weeks and days are easy to calculate. However, for other people such as the Mayans, their method of tracking the date is much more complex. Mayans have 260 days in one week with names for each year. There are 52 years in their cycle before it repeats again. Although this was a confusing way to keep track of date, it was very accurate. The Mayans used the stars to calculate when events were going to occur. For example, they predicted that something big was going to happen on September 11^th. They also had numbers that they thought were interesting. Specifically, number 13 fascinated them. Although it may be a myth, Friday the 13^th is known to be an unlucky day. Although our calendars are different in so many ways, their information corresponds with important dates in our calendar.

            Mainly while listening to Dr. Calvin speak, I thought this was an important topic to discuss because many people have different feelings about the world ending. Although I missed the end of his seminar I still found it interesting how December 21^st is when people predict the world is going to end. As I discussed the Mayans before, their calendar is the evidence behind this date. Many people fear that their hypothesis will come true because of how accurate their calendar has been in the past. However, Dr. Calvin didn’t seem to be quite convinced. However, know the real scientific facts behind this date is important to society because unlike most of us, certain people tend to panic and sell their life savings preparing to die.

            Overall, I was impressed with Dr. Calvin’s ability to maintain the audiences’ attention while talking about something so complex. It was always easy to wrap my head around the thought that just in a couple days the world could possibly end. However, with more evidence shed on the subject, I was able to better understand the real logistics. Dr. Calvin did a very nice job presenting about this theory and answered all my questions on the world ending soon. Hopefully the Mayan calendar isn’t right this time!