Becoming an Internet Detective
1. Option D: Maya Calendar http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1947PASP...59...17M Content [What?]:
Is the site a good source for information?
This site is an exceptional source for information. For one, this website is run by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory [1], and this fact is upheld on the Smithsonian Institution’s website [2]. The Smithsonian Institution is famously known for being the world’s largest museum [3]. In addition, by going to the website’s home page, a list of people who work at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics can be found. When searching up these names, all of the employees come up as actually working at the center, so it confirmed that professionals …show more content…
For instance, when informing its readers about the names of the eighteen Mayan calendar periods of 20 days, it goes further in-depth by providing drawing of the hieroglyphics of those calendar periods. Additionally, the text describes the unique characteristics of the calendar, like how it predicts lucky and unlucky days, the mathematical formulas used to create the calendar, and comparisons to the Mayan calendar with other calendars, like Gregorian and Egyptian. Furthermore, the site was worth visiting as it explained the complex structure of the Mayan calendar fluidly. To illustrate, on the page labelled “23”, the passage shows the math behind the Mayan calendar by describing it and then giving an example to help readers understand …show more content…
Option B: Mayan Calendar http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/MayanCalendar.html Content [What?]:
Is the site a good source for information?
For people who want a basic mathematical background of the Mayan calendar, this is a good source of information. It provides a simple overview of the three systems used for the calendar : Long Count, Tzolkin, and Haab [1] .To illustrate, the author uses short sentences, less than two conjunctions in a sentence, and the “to be” verb, like the tenses “is” and “were”, frequently.
Was the site worth visiting?
The site was worth reading as I could quickly get information on how the three systems were set up and a simple explanation of terminology. For example, the website stated the information straightforward like, “The Haab was a civil calendar consisting of 18 "months" of 20 days each…” [1] This is a very basic statement that practically everyone could understand. However, if I wanted a more detailed description of the Mayan calendar, like information on the hieroglyphics or the cultural effects of the calendar, this wouldn’t be the website I would go to.
Accuracy [When?]:
Is the information on the site accurate?
The information on the site is