Calculating What Date Will it Be in 50,000 Days

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SUMMARY

This discussion focuses on calculating the date that will occur in 50,000 days, emphasizing the complexities introduced by leap years in the Gregorian calendar. The key takeaway is that a leap year occurs every 4 years, with exceptions for century years not divisible by 400. Participants suggest reading the Wikipedia page on leap years for a comprehensive understanding and recommend using algorithms for accurate date calculations. Additionally, spreadsheet software like Excel offers built-in date calculation functions that utilize Julian Day Numbers (JDN) for precise date management.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of the Gregorian calendar and leap year rules
  • Familiarity with Julian Day Numbers (JDN)
  • Basic knowledge of algorithms for date calculations
  • Experience with spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the Gregorian calendar's leap year rules in detail
  • Learn about Julian Day Number (JDN) calculations and their applications
  • Explore algorithms for calendrical calculations as described in academic papers
  • Practice using date functions in Excel for date manipulation tasks
USEFUL FOR

Mathematicians, software developers, astronomers, and anyone interested in precise date calculations and calendar algorithms will benefit from this discussion.

rhimmelblau
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Is there a formula to calculate what date it will be in a certain number of days? I've tried to work this out on my own but don't know what to do with those pesky leap years.

Say you figured out that a comet you want to see will have its closets approach to Earth again in 50,000 days, and you want to mark it on your calendar.
 
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Just work Mod7 .
 
rhimmelblau said:
Is there a formula to calculate what date it will be in a certain number of days? I've tried to work this out on my own but don't know what to do with those pesky leap years.

Say you figured out that a comet you want to see will have its closets approach to Earth again in 50,000 days, and you want to mark it on your calendar.

You should read the wiki on leap years since it's a little more complicated than just adding a day every 4th year.

Also, are you looking for an algorithm (what calculators would probably use) to find the date, or do you want an actual formula which I'd have to admit would be more complicated?
 
Mentallic said:
You should read the wiki on leap years since it's a little more complicated than just adding a day every 4th year.

Also, are you looking for an algorithm (what calculators would probably use) to find the date, or do you want an actual formula which I'd have to admit would be more complicated?

Looking for a algorithm I could punch into my calculator or include in a piece of code.
 
Alright well it's not too hard to deal with leap years. Basically, it's a leap year every 4 years, except every century (not including every 400 years).
 
For the Gregorian calendar, a year is a leap year if it is evenly divisible by 4, except in the case of century years (which end in '00'), which must be evenly divisible by 400. Thus, 2000 was a leap year while 1900 was not and 2100 will not be.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar

This paper describes some algorithms for calendrical calculations:

http://www.cs.tau.ac.il/~nachumd/papers/cc-paper.pdf

Most spreadsheets like Excel include date calculating functions built in. In any event, most of these routines use Julian date calculations, where each date on the calendar has a unique integer, called a Julian Day Number (JDN), associated with it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_day
 

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