No doubt, you know the date of your birthday. But do you know the exact day of the week when you were born? Using the tables and method below you can work out which day it was on any date from the beginning of the Christian era (i.e. the year since Christ's birth) up to the year 3 000 AD.

Lets see how this works by finding out on which day of the week was christmas Day 1997.

Step 1 - Write the last 2 digits of the year.
The last two digits in 1997 are 97

Step 2 - Divide this number by 4 and ignore any remainder you get in your answer.
97 divided by 4 = 24 (the remainder is 3 but ignore it)

Step 3 - Add the day of the month i.e. 25

Step 4 - Add the code number for the month from Table 1.
For December the code is 1

Step 5 - Add the code number for century from Table 2
For 1900s the code is 5

Step 6 - The total of all the steps is 97 + 24 + 25 + 1 + 5. This equals 152
Divide this total by 7. 152 + 7 = 21 remainder 5
Check this remainder with its day in table 3

5 means Thursday. So Christmas Day, 1997 was on a Thursday.

Task A
Follow the same steps, you can now find out the exact day of the week when you were born.

Task B
Now you can impress your family and friends by finding out their date of birth or the date of special events in their life and working out the exact day when they were born or when the special event took place.

Task C
Here are some historical events, which have taken place. find out the exact day of the week when they happened.

1. Mary Bryant, her husband William, their 2 Children and 7 other convicts stole a six-oared cutter and went ashore at present day Newcastle, Australia on 30th March 1791. Which day was this?

2. mary was caught and return to sydney by the ship 'Gorgon' and sentenced to jail indefinitely on 18th March 1792.

3. Mary was granted an unconditional pardon on 2nd May 1793.

4. Queen Elizabeth II was crowned on 2nd June 1953.

5. man first landed on the moon on 24th June 1969.

6. The first London Marathon took place on 29th March 1981.

The Department of Health recommends individuals limit the amount of fat in their diet to less than 30% of a day's calories.

The chart below lists some information about fast food breakfasts.

1. What is the percentage of calories from fat for the 'Fried Egg in a Roll?
2. Which of the breakfasts listed above have the highest percentage of calories from fat? Explain.
3. Health authorities now advise limiting sodium (salt) to 3 300 milligrams or less a day. What % of the recommended daily allocation do each of these breakfast foods provide?
4. Your friend who is on a low sodium diet decides to have both the Apple Bran Muffin and the Apple Cinnamon Danish. What percent of the recommended sodium allotment has she had?
5. It is recommended that cholesterol should be limited to 330 milligrams or less a day. A man on a low cholesterol diet has a scrambled egg platter and states 'I have only used up 65% of my cholesterol allotment fro today'. As his doctor, how do you reply?
6. Another of your patients decided to have the Bacon and Eggs on Toast and an Apple Bran Muffin. Do you consider this combinations a healthy choice? Explain your reasoning.

An extra challenge
Look at the nutritional information on the breakfast foods in your house (bread, milk, cereals, baked beans etc)

How healthy are they?

These problems were sourced by
North East Lincolnshire's Numeracy Team

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