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  • Hello time travelers and any other people living in the future:

  • If you're watching this, it means that the Maya,

  • as they often are, were right.

  • And Hollywood, as it almost always is when

  • it comes to science, was wrong.

  • [INTRO]

  • I'm talking, of course, about the Mayan calendar,

  • and the winter solstice of 2012.

  • As you've noticed, Hollywood shysters, along with some

  • cable TV people and a good number of pseudoscientist authors

  • are trying to convince the world that maybe

  • it's all going to end on December 21, 2012.

  • The earth is going to split in two or the poles are going to shift

  • or house cats are going to rise up against us

  • and make us poop in boxes of sand.

  • And they're all feeling that way because of a particular significance

  • that a particular ancient civilization put on that very date.

  • And if you're watching this video after December 21, 2012.

  • Well, you may have to feel a little bit embarrassed

  • about getting all wee-wee'd up about it.

  • Now I'm not saying that December 21st, 2012 isn't

  • an important date in the Mayan calendar, it certainly is.

  • Don't panic!

  • I can personally guarantee that the world is not

  • going to end on December 21st, 2012.

  • And here is just one of the reasons why.

  • It's not even that I don't believe that the world is going to end,

  • it's that the Maya didn't.

  • The Maya had lots of different ways of measuring time.

  • And one of them was especially for measuring

  • very long periods of time.

  • Because unlike you and me

  • who can't remember life before Tomb Raider Underworld

  • the Maya had a really long view of time.

  • And they measured it using what's called the Long Count Calendar.

  • So check this out.

  • The Maya called a day a k'in.

  • Twenty of these k'ins, twenty days, were called a winal.

  • Eighteen winals, or 360 days, made a tun, or about a year.

  • Twenty tuns were known as a k'atun, or about 20 years.

  • And twenty k'atuns make a b'ak'tun,

  • which amounted to about 144,000 days, or about 394.26 years.

  • The Maya used this system to count the number of days since

  • what they called "the last creation."

  • Yeah, I said the last creation.

  • Because the Maya believed that we

  • are currently living in the fourth creation.

  • The first three, the gods screwed up or whatever

  • and they wanted to start over.

  • Believe it or not, some scientists actually did the math

  • backwards and they figured out that the date of

  • the last creation was 3114 BC on August 11th.

  • You gotta start somewhere, right?

  • So here's how the Maya marked time from that day:

  • You start with the number of b'ak'tuns, or 144,000-day cycles,

  • that have passed since creation:

  • Then to get a more specific date,

  • you put on the number of k'atuns, or 20-year cycles

  • Then you add the number of tuns, the 360-day cycles:

  • Then the number of 20 day winals:

  • And finally the number of days:

  • And hey look!

  • I can show you my birthday!

  • May 5, 1980, according to the Mayan Calendar.

  • Here's what July 4, 1776 looks like.

  • And finally, we have what December 21, 2012 looks like.

  • Yep.

  • That is it.

  • A 13 and some zeroes.

  • December 21, 2012 is when

  • the Mayan calendar clicks over to the next whole b'ak'tun.

  • And do you know what happened the last time this happened,

  • the last time we clicked over to a whole b'ak'tun?

  • Nothing!

  • No kidding.

  • The last time that this happened was September 18, 1618.

  • An auspicious date known for absolutely nothing happening on it.

  • I've got a history of everything that happened on every day

  • in history, and let's see what we've got.

  • We've got: the Spanish crown reinforced its

  • garrison in Puerto Rico.

  • That is the only thing that we could find in any history book

  • about what happened on that day.

  • Now it is true that the Mayans believed that the last creation

  • lasted for exactly 13 b'ak'tuns.

  • So that's probably where all the hysteria is coming from.

  • But there's nothing in all of Maya lore that says that the calendar

  • will stop, or that creation will cease or any mumbo-jumbo like that.

  • If anything, people who study this say, that it probably will just

  • be an occasion for some noisemakers, and singing auld lang syne,

  • and getting really drunk, and hooking up with that hot housewife

  • who lives two doors down from Chichen Itza.

  • It's basically just Y2K for Mesoamericans.

  • So, yes, I'm afraid that you do have to finish that term paper.

  • And file your taxes.

  • And remember your sister's birthday.

  • And continue paying off your student loans.

  • The Mayans would've wanted it that way.

  • Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow.

  • It's great to know that we're not all going to perish

  • in a burning ball of flame next year,

  • and that's the kind of news that we like to bring you.

  • And if you want to hear more of it,

  • you should subscribe if you haven't already.

  • And if you have any questions or ideas for us you can hook up

  • with us on Facebook or on Twitter, and always we'll be down below

  • in the YouTube comments where we love to see you.

  • Goodbye.

Hello time travelers and any other people living in the future:

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玛雅(The Mayan Calendar & 2012)

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    joey joey 發佈於 2021 年 05 月 19 日
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