Calendar Math

Celebrate the new year by investigating these calendar related links. Thank your lucky stars (and the sun and the moon) that we have such an interesting way of marking the passage of time.

Algebra – Fun with Calendars - http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/Lessons/calen.html

This web page explains the math behind a popular calendar trick. “A fun mathematical puzzle to play with your friends. (Or teachers, with your class.) “

The Calendar - http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Lcalend.htm

This lesson plan explores some of the properties of calendars is part of the Stargazers project based at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. “An overview of solar and lunar calendars, their history and lore. Also, of the day and the month, and their relations to the rotation period of the Earth and the orbital period of the Moon.”

Around the World Calendar - http://www.microsoft.com/education/?ID=AroundTheWorld#activity

This site contains a lesson plan from Microsoft Education. “In this project, students explore the famous landmarks or monuments of countries around the world. They discuss how those landmarks represent the culture of the country and also how the landmarks reflect that country's collective memory. Working in teams, students then create a year-long calendar that features 12 countries, along with one significant landmark or monument for each of those countries. “

Use Calendar for Math –

http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/comm_invest/ogp/lessons/colorado/mtv/calendar.html

This site contains a lesson plan from Sun Microsystems. “Students use the Calendar application built into the Desktop Environment as a tool to help solve math problems involving calendar time from a math book assignment.”

ENC’s Classroom Calendar - http://www.enc.org/features/calendar/?ls=ho

This site is a set of links from Eisenhower National Clearinghouse. “In this calendar, you'll find entries that contain background information, ready-to-go activities, and other suggested curriculum materials related to math and science topics. Use the entries to supplement and enrich your lessons. And use them--or any part of them--on any date that suits your needs. The entries contain direct links to carefully chosen Internet sources and are correlated to national science and mathematics standards. Watch the calendar throughout the year as we continue to add new entries and update others.”

The Love to Learn Crew: Calendar Math - http://www.myschoolonline.com/page/0,1871,29411-207149-31-10876,00.html

This site contains a set of calendar activity for younger children. The site is hosted on MySchoolOnline. “Knowing how to measure time in terms of days, weeks, months, and years is an important life skill and one that we will practice every day. Each day we will work with our calendar to learn the days of the week, months of the year, seasons, and holidays. Our calendar also reinforces number recognition, counting, sequencing, estimation, and patterns.”

Cosmic Calendar Math - http://www.astrosociety.org/education/astro/act2/mathprint.html

A short exercise from Astronomical Society of the Pacific using ratio and proportion and dimensional analysis. "You can use fractions to scale events in the history of the universe to one year. If you take the age of the universe as 15 billion years, then something that occurred 5 billion years ago happened when the universe was 2/3 it's present age. On the timeline of one year, that event would occur 2/3 of the way through the year. Two thirds of one year is 8 months, so you could estimate that the event would occur around the end of August.”

The Calendar and the Days of the Week - http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.calendar.html

Dr. Math at the Math Forum answers the questions: “ What years are leap years?”, “How do I find the day of the week for any date?” And “How common are Friday the 13ths?”.

Calendar Quirks - http://www.maa.org/mathland/mathtrek_12_21_98.html

Interesting facts about calendars from the Mathematical Association of America. “Calendars represent our efforts to create frameworks that allow us to reckon time over extended periods.”

Happy New Year or Is it? - http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson045.shtml

This site from Education World Online provides a short history of calendars. “Happy New Year? That depends on which calendar you use! Students can explore the world's calendar options and create their own "perfect" calendars! “

Calendars Through the Ages - http://webexhibits.org/calendars/

This site explains the history and basis for several calendars. It also has a list of frequently asked questions. This site is very professional looking. The interface, color scheme, graphics and fonts are pleasant and functional. “Explore the fascinating history of the human endeavor to organize our lives in accordance with the sun and stars.”

Calendar Zone: Cultural Calendars - http://www.calendarzone.com/Cultural/

Links to sites devoted to the calendars of various cultures. The quotes concerning time that are displayed each time you load the page are also entertaining. Sixty sites are referenced here with short annotations.

Calendar Math - http://calmath.couprie.org/

A download site for an EXCEL add-in for calendar calculations. “This site contains several algorithms for making calendar ordate related calculations.”