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jeff....@multisystem.com

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Sep 24, 1995, 3:00:00 AM9/24/95
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Can any of you puzzle experts think of any way to figure out what day that
Thanksgiving comes on for any specified year?
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robert a. moeser

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Sep 24, 1995, 3:00:00 AM9/24/95
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In article <950924120...@multisystem.com>,
jeff....@multisystem.com wrote:

> Can any of you puzzle experts think of any way to figure out what day that
> Thanksgiving comes on for any specified year?

isn't it the next-to-last Thursday in November?

or was it the third Thursday.

one of those, i think.

it's definitely a Thursday, though.

-- rob

Chris Best

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Sep 25, 1995, 3:00:00 AM9/25/95
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: Can any of you puzzle experts think of any way to figure out what day that
: Thanksgiving comes on for any specified year?


----------

Well, the knee-jerk answer is "Thursday" in case that's what you were
trolling for (or away from).

The whole answer, from the dictionary, is: 4th Thursday in November (in the
USA), 2nd Monday in October (in Canada).

I'm still trying to figure what the "puzzle" was meant to be here.

Brian Tung

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Sep 25, 1995, 3:00:00 AM9/25/95
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jeff....@multisystem.com wrote:
> Can any of you puzzle experts think of any way to figure out what day that
> Thanksgiving comes on for any specified year?

For year N...
SPOILER

...it's Thursday.

Oh, you meant which DATE!

byron elbows
br...@isi.edu
http://info.broker.isi.edu/brian/
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* Everyone is weirder than others think they are.

Brian Tung

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Sep 25, 1995, 3:00:00 AM9/25/95
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jeff....@multisystem.com wrote:
> Can any of you puzzle experts think of any way to figure out what day that
> Thanksgiving comes on for any specified year?

I wrote:
> Oh, you meant which DATE!
>

Take the year number y. Divide y-1900 by 4 to get q remainder r.
Divide y+q+4 by 7 to get f remainder g. If g is less than 5, subtract
g from 5 to get d. Otherwise, subtract g from 12 to get d. Thanksgiving
comes on d+21.

For example, the current year is 1995. Divide 95 by 4 to get 23 remainder
3. Divide 122 by 7 to get 17 remainder 3. Subtract 3 from 5 to get 2.
Thanksgiving comes on 23 November 1995.

Brian Tung

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Sep 25, 1995, 3:00:00 AM9/25/95
to
I wrote:
> Take the year number y. Divide y-1900 by 4 to get q remainder r.
> Divide y+q+4 by 7 to get f remainder g. If g is less than 5, subtract
> g from 5 to get d. Otherwise, subtract g from 12 to get d. Thanksgiving
> comes on d+21.
>
> For example, the current year is 1995. Divide 95 by 4 to get 23 remainder
> 3. Divide 122 by 7 to get 17 remainder 3. Subtract 3 from 5 to get 2.
> Thanksgiving comes on 23 November 1995.

I forgot to mention that this only works until the year 2100.

John J. Vriezen

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Sep 25, 1995, 3:00:00 AM9/25/95
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In article <950924120...@multisystem.com>,
jeff....@multisystem.com says...

>
>
>Can any of you puzzle experts think of any way to figure out what day
that
>Thanksgiving comes on for any specified year?
>---
> * OFFLINE 1.58
>
>
> _ __/|
> `O.o'
>+-------- =(_X_)= -------------+
>| Internet U Email |
>| jeff....@multisystem.com |
>

Look at a calendar? :-)


Tom Magliery

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Sep 26, 1995, 3:00:00 AM9/26/95
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In article <446gmt$5...@nonews.col.hp.com>, c...@col.hp.com (Chris Best) wrote:

> : Can any of you puzzle experts think of any way to figure out what day that

> : Thanksgiving comes on for any specified year?
>
>

> ----------
>
> Well, the knee-jerk answer is "Thursday" in case that's what you were
> trolling for (or away from).
>
> The whole answer, from the dictionary, is: 4th Thursday in November (in the
> USA), 2nd Monday in October (in Canada).
>
> I'm still trying to figure what the "puzzle" was meant to be here.

Maybe a function "US" which maps from {years} to {22,23,24,25,26,27,28},
the possible dates in November on which Thanksgiving may fall in the US
(trusting your dictionary to have the correct definition of
Thanksgiving). Similarly for Canada, of course.

mag

--
Tom Magliery ** NCSA ** 605 E Springfield ** Champaign IL 61820 ** USA

Brian Tung

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Sep 26, 1995, 3:00:00 AM9/26/95
to
I wrote:
> Take the year number y. Divide y-1900 by 4 to get q remainder r.
> Divide y+q+4 by 7 to get f remainder g. If g is less than 5, subtract
> g from 5 to get d. Otherwise, subtract g from 12 to get d. Thanksgiving
> comes on d+21.

Duh. Easier to do the following:

Take the year number y. Multiply y-1900 by 5, then divide by 4, then
subtract 1. Take the remainder modulo 7. Subtract from 28. That's
the date that Thanksgiving comes on.

In C:

offset = year-1900;
date = 28-(offset*5/4-1)%7

For instance:
95*5/4 = 118
117/7 = 16 remainder 5
Thanksgiving comes on 23 November.

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Brian Gordon

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Sep 26, 1995, 3:00:00 AM9/26/95
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In article <ram-240995...@ram.tiac.net>,

robert a. moeser <r...@tiac.net> wrote:
>In article <950924120...@multisystem.com>,
>jeff....@multisystem.com wrote:
>
>> Can any of you puzzle experts think of any way to figure out what day that
>> Thanksgiving comes on for any specified year?
>
>isn't it the next-to-last Thursday in November?
>
>or was it the third Thursday.
>
>one of those, i think.
>
>it's definitely a Thursday, though.
>
>-- rob

Actually, it's the fourth Thursday. It used to be the last Thursday, but that
changed under FDR. It's the key to one of Azimov's Black Widow stories.

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Ed Pyrik

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Oct 13, 1995, 3:00:00 AM10/13/95
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jeff....@multisystem.com wrote:


>Can any of you puzzle experts think of any way to figure out what day that
>Thanksgiving comes on for any specified year?

>---

Are you referring to American Thanksgiving (Nov 23rd) or Canadian (Oct
9th).
ed_p...@mindlink.bc.ca
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - its SuperNatural


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