Calendar Questions and Answers

Answer: C

There are 24 working days.

If the 29-day month begins on a Saturday, the Saturdays fall on the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th, and the Sundays on the 2nd, 9th, 16th and 23rd.

The holidays are the second Saturday (the 8th) and the four Sundays, 5 days in all, so

\[ 29 - 5 = 24 \]

25 is what you get by counting only the four Sundays and forgetting the second Saturday. 23 and 22 count six or seven holidays, as if more than one Saturday were off; only the second Saturday is a holiday here.

Answer: B

The Tuesday is 22nd July, 1980.

From 24 July 1979 to 24 July 1980 is one year that includes 29 February 1980, so it has 366 days:

\[ 366 = 52 \times 7 + 2 \]

The weekday therefore moves forward by 2 days: 24 July 1980 falls on Thursday. Counting back, 23 July 1980 is Wednesday and 22 July 1980 is Tuesday.

24 July 1980 would be a Tuesday only if the year had exactly 52 weeks, ignoring the extra days. 23 July would follow from adding just one odd day, as for a non-leap year.

Answer: B

2nd March, 2023 was a Thursday.

Count the days from 30 January to 2 March 2023: 1 more day in January, 28 days in February (2023 is not a leap year) and 2 days in March, which is 31 days.

\[ 31 = 4 \times 7 + 3 \]

So the day moves forward 3 from Monday: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Wednesday comes from counting one day too few, for example by leaving out 31 January.

Answer: C

The fourth Tuesday falls on the 27th.

If the 16th is the third Friday, the Fridays are the 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th. Tuesday comes 3 days before Friday, so the Tuesdays are the 6th, 13th, 20th and 27th. The fourth Tuesday is the 27th.

26 and 28 are Monday and Wednesday of that week, and 25 is the Sunday. Those options come from counting the offset from Friday wrongly.

Answer: B

The minimum is 22 working days.

Every month has exactly two 'second and fourth' Saturdays off, so the working days are the days of the month minus 2 minus the number of Sundays.

• 28 days (February): 4 Sundays, so 28 - 4 - 2 = 22.
• 29 days with 5 Sundays: 29 - 5 - 2 = 22.
• 30 days with 5 Sundays: 23.
• 31 days with 5 Sundays: 24.

So no month can have fewer than 22 working days.

The only months that reach the minimum are those with 28 days, or 29 days with five Sundays (a February in a leap year that starts on a Sunday).

Answer: B

The 1st of the month falls on a Friday.

The day preceding Sunday is Saturday, so the 9th is a Saturday. The 1st is 8 days earlier:

\[ 9 - 1 = 8 = 7 + 1 \]

Going back 7 days lands on the 2nd, also a Saturday; one more day back makes the 1st a Friday. Saturday is the trap of treating the 8-day gap as a whole number of weeks; Sunday and Monday fit no correct count.

Answer: B

Yesterday was Friday.

If tomorrow is Sunday, today is Saturday, and the day before today is Friday. The gap between tomorrow and yesterday is always two days.

Saturday is today, not yesterday, which is the usual slip of moving back only one day from Sunday. Thursday moves back three days, and Monday comes after Sunday rather than before it. A quick way to avoid the slip is to fix 'today' first and only then step one day back or forward.

Answer: A

March 1 falls on a Tuesday.

Count the days from 1 January to 1 March in a leap year: 31 days of January and 29 of February, 60 days in all. 60 = 8 weeks + 4 days, so 1 March is 4 days after the weekday of 1 January.

Friday + 4 days = Tuesday. In an ordinary year the gap is 59 days (3 odd days) and the answer would be Monday, which is why the leap day matters; Wednesday, Thursday and Friday come from miscounting the odd days.

Answer: A

The answer is Wednesday.

Take the question's premise, 26 January 2008 as a Friday, as given. Moving from 26 January to 26 January of the next year adds one weekday for a 365-day year and two for a year containing 29 February.

\[ \begin{aligned} 2008 \to 2009 &: 366 \text{ days}, +2 \\ 2009 \to 2012 &: 3 \times 365 \text{ days}, +3 \end{aligned} \]

That is 5 days in all, and Friday plus 5 days is Wednesday. The leap day of 2012 falls after 26 January, so it is not counted. (The real 26 January 2008 was a Saturday; the key follows the premise printed in the question.) Thursday and Friday do not fit the count, so 'None of the above' is wrong too.

Answer: C

1st April, 2004 is a Saturday.

2004 is a leap year, so February has 29 days. Count the odd days from 1 February.

\[ \begin{aligned} \text{1 Feb to 1 Mar} &: 29 \text{ days} = 4 \text{ weeks} + 1 \\ \text{1 Mar to 1 Apr} &: 31 \text{ days} = 4 \text{ weeks} + 3 \end{aligned} \]

That is 1 + 3 = 4 odd days, and Tuesday + 4 is Saturday. Treating February as 28 days gives Friday, which is not offered; the other options miscount the odd days.