Zeller's Algorithm
Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for its living,
And a child that is born on the Sabbath day,
Is fair and wise and good and gay.
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for its living,
And a child that is born on the Sabbath day,
Is fair and wise and good and gay.
Zeller's Algorithm is a way to work out what day of the week any day of any year fell on. Most commonly it is used to find on what day you were born (which can determine your character according to the old rhyme above). The applet below calculates the day of the week for any given date.
Select the day, month and year for the date you are interested in, and press the button to find out what day of the week this was.
| Day | Month | Year |
Ideas for Teachers
Ask students if they know what day of the week they were born on. Some will, but many won't. Ask them how they could work it out (without looking in a diary). Working backwards is a good way, but not particularly efficient, especially when you are older. Use the QQI to find the day of the week for one student in the class, and discuss how the computer might work it out. A discussion of algorithms should follow, and how they can be implemented on a computer. Now give out the worksheet, and get them to use the algorithm to calculate the day of the week they were born on. Finally, get them on Excel to create a spreadsheet that does all the work for you. Finish off with a discussion of how computers are paricularly good at implenting algorithms.
Ask students if they know what day of the week they were born on. Some will, but many won't. Ask them how they could work it out (without looking in a diary). Working backwards is a good way, but not particularly efficient, especially when you are older. Use the QQI to find the day of the week for one student in the class, and discuss how the computer might work it out. A discussion of algorithms should follow, and how they can be implemented on a computer. Now give out the worksheet, and get them to use the algorithm to calculate the day of the week they were born on. Finally, get them on Excel to create a spreadsheet that does all the work for you. Finish off with a discussion of how computers are paricularly good at implenting algorithms.
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A worksheet giving the algorithm used in the above activity, and an example of how it works.
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Here is an example of how you could choose to implement this algorithm on Excel. It does not require any complex functions, but a basic use of IF statements is needed.
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