Centuries on Sunday

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Centuries That Start on Sunday

Problem Description

I can't remember where I ran across this one, but the problem is to calculate the probability that a century begins on a Sunday.

Background and techniques

The attached program calculates and prints the day of week for January 1sts for centuries between 1500 and 4500 AD. The problem assumes the Gregorian calendar, the one we use today implemented by Pope Gregory in 1584. When you see the results, the problem will switch from the probability of Sundays to explaining the results you observe. The source code has extensive comments explaining things, but I encourage you to run the program and think about it first.

Exploring the Program

Suggestions for Further Study

If the leap year rules are correct we should be able to calculate the true number of hours per day quite accurately, maybe within 1 day per 400 years?

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