Question

A year is a leap year if and only if the year number is divisible by $400$ (such as $2000$ ) or is divisible by $4$ but not $100$ (such as $2012$ ). The $200$ th anniversary of the birth of novelist Charles Dickens was celebrated on February $7,$ $2012,$ a Tuesday. On what day of the week was Dickens born?

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Answer: A

Concepts:date and time modular arithmetic

Difficulty rating: 1540

Solution:

On a typical year with $365$ days, moving one year into the future moves the day of the week forward one since $365 = 52 \cdot 7 + 1.$

On a leap year however, the day of the week gets moved forward twice since there is an extra day.

Fifty of the years between $2012$ and $1812$ are multiples of $4,$ but we have to discard $1900,$ which leaves us with $49$ leap years.

Therefore, moving back $200$ years means we have to go back $200 + 49 = 249 = 35 \cdot 7 + 4$ days, which means we move back $4$ days in the week.

This takes us back to Friday, which is the day that corresponds to February $7,$ $1812.$

Thus, A is the correct answer.

2012 AMC 10A Problem 12

Answer: A

Difficulty rating: 1540

Solution:

Problem 12 in Other Years