Ever since man was in his infancy, he has used a calendar, of sorts, to direct his life.

From earliest times, he used the seasons and as he began to farm, had sowing, growing and reaping seasons.

He noticed that there were about 360 sun rises before the seasons came around again. Then he divided these into months.

We know that August was named after Caesar Augustus, July after Julius Caesar and June after Juno, wife of Jupiter who was the king of the Roman gods.

Months were divided into weeks and then days.

The Julian Calendar was the official calendar used from 46 BC. It introduced the leap year which occurs every 4 years (years which are multiples of 4 - 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, etc.). In 1582, because it had become out of step by 10 days, it was replaced by the Gregorian Calendar. This dropped 11 days and took away some of the leap years (like 1000 AD, 3000 AD - multiples of 100 which are not also multiples of 400). Just imagine if you were living at that time and you suddenly found that your birthday had been deleted from the calendar!

The calendar has lots of quirks!

Friday 13th

Friday 13th is regarded as a very superstitious day and some people suffer from a phobia of it - Triskadekaphobia - the fear of Friday 13th.

How many Friday 13ths are there in 2000? What is the most possible Friday 13ths in any given year? What day would New Year's Day be in a year with the most?

January Puzzles

Look at the calendar for January 2000.

1. How many Tuesdays are there in January?
2. How many Sundays are there in January?
3. What date is the second Friday in the month?
4. What date is the last Monday in the month?
5. What day of the week is 18th January?
6. What day of the week is 3rd January?

Have some fun by making your own calendar!

What day were you born on?

You can work out the day you were born on by using your birthday.

Daily Mathematicians

This site is a fun one if you are interested in famous mathematicians!

This page last had its links checked on 14/04/01