Lies, damned lies and a Mayan prophesy of doom

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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/235912

Title: Lies, damned lies and a Mayan prophesy of doom
Author(s): Ewing, Scott
Abstract: One in ten Australians believes the world will end this year in line with ancient Mayan prophecies. So began a story in The Age. It seems a startling finding. But although many Australians may have heard something about the end of Mayan time and associated it with an end of the world prediction, it is doubtful that many believe the world will end in the next few months. As research conducted in 2011 by Ewing and Associates found, when a statistic looks ridiculous, 83.2% of the time it is.
Publication type: Journal article
Research centre: Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Life and Social Sciences. The Swinburne Institute for Social Research
Source: Vinculum, Vol. 49, no. 4 (2012)
Publication year: 2012
Keyword(s): Mathematics; Mayan prophecies; Statistics
Publisher: Mathematical Association of Victoria
ISSN: 0157-759X
Publisher URL: http://www.informit.com.au/products/productdetails.aspx?id=0157-759X