• Question: Is there actually any evidence of the world ending in 2012 or is it all just a myth?

    Asked by cliffordhwh to David, Helen, Ian, rhysphillips, Sarah on 16 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by malikawh, canavanlwh.
    • Photo: David Corne

      David Corne answered on 15 Jun 2011:


      In case you don’t know about probability: a probability of 0 means “definitely will not happen”, and a probability of 1 means “absolutely certain to happen”, while 0.2 means “maybe”, 0.9 means “probably”, etc. Technically there is a probability that the Earth will end in 2012 – there is also a probability that it will end in 2000000012. In both cases the probability is, roughly speaking, 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001
      or thereabouts.

    • Photo: Rhys Phillips

      Rhys Phillips answered on 15 Jun 2011:


      There’s no evidence, it’s just something someone has made up!

    • Photo: Ian van der Linde

      Ian van der Linde answered on 16 Jun 2011:


      Some people say that the world will end in 2012 because the Mayan calendar, which was made by a now-extinct civilisation who lived in Central America, doesn’t have any dates beyond 2012. It’s an attractive idea to think that they knew something that we don’t, but there is no scientific evidence to suggest that anything catastrophic is due to happen next year, so I don’t think we have anything to worry about! It’s more superstition than science, I would say!

    • Photo: Helen Fletcher

      Helen Fletcher answered on 16 Jun 2011:


      I’m with David on this one..

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