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Surprising Science —

Mathematics Makes an Eternal Calendar

An astrophysicist and an economist have created a calendar in which each new 12-month period is identical to the one which came before, and remains that way from one year to the next in perpetuity.

What’s the Latest Development?

Using computer programs and mathematical formulas, an astrophysicist and an economist have created a calendar in which each new 12-month period is identical to the one which came before, and remains that way from one year to the next in perpetuity. Dubbed the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar, holidays and birthdays would always fall on the same day of the week. One necessary change in making the calendar was redistributing days across the 12 months. September and June, for example, would each have 31 days.

What’s the Big Idea?

Having an unchanging calendar would produce some noteworthy benefits. The convenience of having every birthday and every work holiday fall on the same day of every year would simply planning but there are also substantial economic benefits. “Business meetings, sports schedules and school calendars would be identical every year. Today’s cacophony of time zones, daylight savings times and calendar fluctuations, year after year, would be over. The economy—that’s all of us—would receive a permanent ‘harmonization’ dividend.”

Photo credit: shutterstock.com

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