Is wikipedia a reliable source

[meganeerraj]

hi sir/ma'am,

I am Neerraj and I am 12. I doing research for a science fair and don't know if Wikipedia is a good source. I wanted to know how much does an average person sweat on an average day. But when I checked other sites, they said that it is not reliable, even Wikipedia itself said it! The other problem was, I couldn't find any other site that was as concise as wikipedia, oh and another think is Quora a blog? Is it reliable?

regards,
Neerraj

[AmyCowen]

Neerraj - Your science fair or teacher may have provided guidelines that will help you determine if the Wikipedia can be used for your research. Because Wikipedia entries can be edited by anyone, it is important to understand that information in a Wikipedia entry may be wrong. (This is true with information on the Internet in general.)

You may find that some of the references cited in a Wikipedia entry can help lead you to other sources that may be useful to your research, so using the Wikipedia as part of your research may be helpful. But we recommend you follow your teacher or fair guidelines for sources and do plenty of research beyond the Wikipedia.

(Quora is an online forum where questions can be posted and answered by anyone.)

Amy
Science Buddies

[meganeerraj]

Thank you ma'am