Jump to content

How many days this month?


Echognome

How do you figure out the number of days in a month?  

52 members have voted

  1. 1. How do you figure out the number of days in a month?

    • Knuckle Trick
      24
    • Sing the Song
      28


Recommended Posts

but I tell you what is really scary - is the people who can tell you what day of the week Jun 15, 1702 was, for example.

 

I've read of savants doing this.

 

nickf

sydney

I had an uncle who could do that. He was otherwise quite normal.

 

I believe the formula is not particularly difficult to learn. When my dad took astronomy exam back in 1954 one question was "what day of the week is it today and why". So I suppose anyone with a minor in astronomy could do it then, savant or not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Am I missing something ?

 

Beyond about 10 years of age, don't most people just know how many days are in each month without the aid of a ditty or two hands?

 

nickf

sydney

I guess I'm not part of the 'most' group :blink: Really, if someone gave asked me a random month like september I wouldn't know it on top of my head lol I would need to think and revert to the knuckles..except for Jan/Feb/Dec as they are the easy ones cuz they're the exception/boundary months.

 

but I tell you what is really scary - is the people who can tell you what day of the week Jun 15, 1702 was, for example.

 

I've read of savants doing this.

 

Yeah, there's an interesting documentary episode on it "Discovery Channel - Everything you need to know about the brain"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used the knuckle trick before I just "knew it". I never heard of a song related to this.

 

I believe the formula is not particularly difficult to learn. When my dad took astronomy exam back in 1954 one question was "what day of the week is it today and why". So I suppose anyone with a minor in astronomy could do it then, savant or not.

 

The formula is not THAT easy... I knew it at some point, then noticed that I never used it and that was basically the end of it. I never had much use of knowing what day January 1st, 1702 was or so.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I voted song.

 

I mostly just know although if my life depended on being right then I might begin chanting Thirty days has ( No one said "hath" where I grew up) September.... It seems to me that an advantage of the poem is that I do recite actual facts, with the result that after a bit I mostly know these recited facts. If I just go January-February-... , stopping when I get to the month and then consult my knuckles, I might be less likely to get it all straight in my head.

 

I wonder if I could get a government grant from the Department of Education to study this.

 

You just asked this question to see how many folks you could get to actually respond, right? I feel like an idiot for doing so, but here it is. Ask and it shall be answered.

 

Afterthought. I wonder if it depends on the age of first learning the trick. I learned Thirty days etc when I was ver very young. An age when sing-song rhyme is attractive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Heh. There is a fantasy role playing game called "Harnmaster", which takes place on a world called Kethira which has 12 30 day months. There, the poem goes something like:

 

Thirty days hath September,

April, June and November.

All the rest have thirty, too.

I can remember this. Can you?

 

:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Heh. There is a fantasy role playing game called "Harnmaster", which takes place on a world called Kethira which has 12 30 day months. There, the poem goes something like:

 

Thirty days hath September,

April, June and November.

All the rest have thirty, too.

I can remember this. Can you?

 

:P

The same song works on a world with 376 days in the year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...