20 December 2012
Posted in
Our Planet, Our Universe
We’ve heard quite a bit of talk about the Mayan calendar and the supposed end of the world, but what does Dec. 21, 2012 really mean?
Much like we have ways to group time, such as seven days marks a week and 52 weeks make a year, the Mayans grouped time similarly albeit with a different number-base system. Today, the world uses a base-10 system, computers use a base-2 system (binary) and the Mayans used a base-20 system.
Just one of many Mayan calendars, the long count calendar comes to an end Dec. 21 and will “click over” to read “13.0.0.0.0.” This will mark the end of the 13th baktun (properly b’ak’tun) and the beginning of the 14th baktun. Each baktun is 144,000 days or 394.25 years in the long count calendar.
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