My Story

Sorry, your browser doesn't support Java(tm).

STORY

Sorry, your browser doesn't support Java(tm).

Hello to everyone who visit this site,

I believe that many of you have doubts about what the "Magic Calendar" is used for and why I have spent so much time expanding it. Yes, expanding. Because, some of you might know that it is not new. But what existed before mine, was not an ‘infinite’ one. Here, I'm going to share my thoughts with you so you have a better understanding on its background....

When I was a 7 year-old kid in 1987, I realised that the calendar we use today is not only a measurement of days, months and years, but also a kind of mathematics in its own way. Being a Mathematics enthusiast, it fascinated me a great deal. I couldn’t stop thinking and felt that dates are important for all memorable events. Think about your birthday, isn't important? :-) Very soon, some random thoughts started surfacing in my mind....

"Who's the genius who invented this everlasting 'measurement of years'?".....

"How can he make people depend on his invention all their lives?"......

"Think....how will our life go on without knowing about years, months and days?".....

"Does the formula even exist?"......

Maybe most 7 year-old kids will never have thought about those questions. Those had been mysteries that wondered in my little head for many years....

Till one fine day in February 1994, when I was at home flipping through my dairy. Those dates in my dairy reflex my memorable events, which had been very meaningful. Again, I felt that dates are not only numbers that trigger people into deeper thoughts and sentiments other than getting lucky with lottery numbers. Dates are so special, especially when I can remember the day of the week. It's true!

A few months later in May 1994, I watched a television programme called "Amazing discovery". A math magician asked his students to announce the day of the week whatever date was given. His students did it within 2 seconds!!! “How amazing??!! How did he do that?”, I thought.....

On that ‘fateful’ day, I finally realized that there's REALLY a formula for it....

Day after day, I experimented all kinds of method to uncover the magic behind it.

But...

"How to do it?"

A few days later, my sister bought me a book called "Math Magic". The writer of the book was the same math magician who performed his 'trick' in the television programme.

After reading the book, I realised that the calendar's formula can only last for 300 years, and it was very complicated, which really required a lot of practice and effort in order to perform the 2 seconds trick!

So I decided to create my own calendar which is more user-friendly and longer lasting....

One day, I found some information about calendar from a corporate dairy. Let me share it with you, there it wrote....

Given that, I still had no idea of how to go about analyzing it....

By December 1994, I had collected a few calendars from different years, I discovered that there is a cycle between the years. For example: 1st Jan 1995 falls on a Sunday and 1st Jan 1996 falls on a Monday, so which day does 1st Jan 1997 fall on? Make a guess??

The answer is Wednesday because 1996 is a leap year, so 1 more day was added.

Knowing that this was the first step of my little project, I started to draw it as a table. This was the actual size after reducing by the photocopy machine....

Click thumbnail to have a better view

That was the 1st calendar I made. It had three tables and it could only last from 1940AD-2000AD, which was only 61 years. I used the computer’s calendar to make sure there was no error within these years.

"So what if I keep increasing the number of years in my table?” I thought.

Unfortunately, the 2nd calendar I made was a failure. There were 10 tables, which I had tried to make it last for 100 centuries.....

On Christmas day in the same year, I found a mistake in my analysis. I realized that Year 1900 is not a leap year, my table had to be redrawn....

After finishing the 3rd one, it is checked through by the computer again. It was proven 100% perfect accuracy! YES!!! My magic calendar was born!!! I was so excited!!! My analysis was a success. My efforts were finally paid off.

It is everlasting. Even thousand billions of years can be easily calculated with this simple table which is of a size even smaller than a credit card!!!

However, my parents and friends think (Yes! They still THINK!) that I had wasted my time because they don't see any practical application for it....

Many people have asked me "What is it using for?" and "What can it do?" Well, I just simply say "To you, it is 'useless' and it can't do anything. To me, it is a FORMULA for calculation, just like some other formulas some geniuses have invented. It's purely meant for calculation."

This "magic calendar" seems useless to them. Still, I'm not discouraged and already working on my second project: that is, working out a similar device for the lunar calendar. Why ‘wasting time’ again? The answer to this question is,

As I say.....I simply love calculation!

Sorry, your browser doesn't support Java(tm).

About Me / Personal Achievement / My Photo Album / Fame / My Pet / Fun Factory / Home

Content Page / updated List

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws