“According to the Maya calendar, the magnetic poles will reverse on December 21, 2012 causing gravity to fail and we will all fly off into space.”
These words have been heard lately in a current TV ad that goes on to say that, if this doesn’t happen, we will still need to plan for retirement. It’s a cute ad and is accompanied by a whimsical cartoon depiction of the end of the world. The movie “2012” depicted the coming disaster as though it were predicted by the Maya calendar, which supposedly ended on that apocalyptic date in December. There is even a website (probably more than the one I found) dedicated to all things “2012” and it even has A countdown clock, measuring the time left until the “…end of days!”
Is this really what the Maya predicted? Authors of fiction novels and movie screenplay writers probably don’t believe so but they know a good story when they see one. I know I really enjoyed that terrific escape scene in “2012” when the family gets away barely from the slipping of California into the sea. Sensational distortions of scientifically themed potential catastrophes have always been good for selling novels and packing movie theaters but are probably not appropriate for planning normal life activities.
In fact, the Maya never predicted any such thing. There is even a carving in stone of a date thousands of years in the future when the birthday of one of their early heroes will be celebrated. The Maya were great mathematicians, astronomers, and calendarists. They actually kept two calendars. A practical one based on a 360 day “vague” year that was likely used for agriculture and another one with a much grander scope of measuring time. That one used a 260 day “sacred” year and had a more ceremonial role. This sacred calendar was used to measure a “great cycle” and the current version is estimated to end on December 21, 2012. Even that date may not be accurate due to the difficulty correlating the Maya and Gregorian calendars.
The current Maya “sacred” calendar began a few thousand years ago while the Gregorian calendar, the one we use today, was not implemented until the middle ages when Pope Gregory XIII commissioned it. To solve this puzzle you will need to research and determine the year of the beginning of the current Maya sacred calendar and the year of the commissioning of the Gregorian calendar. The difference in years will be ABCD.
The coordinates of the final are:
N47 3(A+B+6-9).(A)(D)(C)
W122 0A.(A+B-C)(C)(C)
Parking is available within 20 feet of GZ.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.
Remember to write down the Maya number symbols found in the log book, or on the lid, that is needed to determine the coordinates of the final cache of this series. After conversion, ten are labeled N and are each a four-digit number. Ten are labeled W and are each a three-digit number. The final cache of this series, A New Era, provides the final numbers and instructions how to add to the prior twenty to determine its coordinates.