Amazing Calendar Trick This trick was performed on Indian TV by the Mathematical wizard Shakuntala Devi long time back . The trick is as follows : A member of the audience asks the calendar date on which e.g third Wednesday falls in July 2011 and she readily tells that it is 20° of July. This can be done for any weekday of any month of any year.How to do the trick | deduced the following formula by trial and error . This formula worked for all the cases | tried in different centuries . Some of the steps are similar to those used for calculating weekday from date . Date = (n-1) *7+ (weekdaycode — monthcode — Yearcode) mod 7 Where n is the the week number .Example. Date = (0-1) 47+ (weekdaycode - monthcode~ Yearcode) mod 7 Where nis the the week number For example , or third Wednesday of luly 2013, N=3 (Third Wednesday) Weekdsycode = 3 for Wednesday Monthcode = 6 for iuly Yeatcode = Stor 2011 Date=2"7 + (3-6-S) mod? 218 4(-8)mod 7 1446 =20 Ifthe date value is larger than the number of days in that month, it means that the ‘questioner did not check the calendar before asking question “The nest few slides show the tables required and complete examplesweekdaycode Table. Sunday : 0 Monday : 1 Tuesday :2 Wednesday :3 Thursday : 4 Friday :5 Saturday : 6Monthcode Table January : 0 February :3 March: 3 April: 6 May: June :4 July 6 August :2 September : 5 October :0 November : 3 December : 5Formula for Yearcode yearcod. (centurycode + [last two digits of year] + (last two digits of year] div 4)) mod 7 + ‘Div’ is the operator for integer division. Just lke ‘mod’ gets the remainder of a division, ‘div’ gets its integer quotient. For example, 17 div 7 = 2 (with a remainder of 3) and 17 mod 7 = 3 + The century code follows a recurrent pattern, and can be used for any date in the Gregorian calendar: + 1600s:6 + 1700s:4 + 1800s: 2 + 1900s: + 2000s: 6; repeating the pattern + 2100s: 4; 6-4-2-0 pattern goes on...Example of Yearcode calculation yearcode = (centurycode + [last two digits of year] + ([Iast two digits of year] div 4)) mod 7 ‘A Fornon-leap year:e.g 2011 6 +11 + 11.div4) mod 7 = (641142) mod 7 8 For leap year : ¢.g 1956 Yearcode = (0+ 56+ 56 div4) mod 7 = (56+14) mod 7 =0 This yearcode is used for the months from March to December and yearcode - ‘Lis used for January and February. Whenever you get a negative value for yearcode add 7 to get the correct yearcode. e.g we get -1 in this case and add 7 to get 6 which is to be used as year code for January and FebruaryModular arithmetic * Calculation of Date = (n-1) *7+ (weekdaycode ~ monthcode - Yearcode) mod 7 Where n is the the week number Case (i) : When the value of expression within parenthesis is positive , the value is the remainder obtained after dividing it by 7 e.g if the value of the expression is 10 the result will be 3. Case (ii) : When the value of the expression is negative , ignore the sign and divide by 7 and get the remainder . Subtract this value from 7 to get the actual result . e.g if the value of the expression is -12,, divide 12 by 7 to get remainder of 5 . Subtract 5 from 7 to get actual result.Complete example for Non-leap Year Suppose we are asked to find 4" Friday of March 2011 Yearcode for 2011=5 Monthcode for March = 3 Weekdaycode for Friday = 5 N=4( 4" Friday ) Date =(n-1) *7+ (weekdaycode — monthcode — Yearcode) mod 7 Where n is the the week number Date =(4-1)* 7 + ( 5-3-5) mod 7 = 21+ (-3) mod 7 =214+4=25Complete Example for Leap Year Suppose we are asked to find date corresponding to the 2" Sunday of February 2012. Yearcode for 2012 ( Leap Year ): 6 for January and February and 0 for the remaining months . Monthcode = 3 for February Weekdaycode = 0 for Sunday N= 2 (second Sunday) Date = (n-1) *7+ (weekdaycode - monthcode — Yearcode) mod 7 Where n is the the week number Date = (2-1) *7+(0-3-6) mod 7=7 +(-9) mod 7 = 745 =12