A Calendar Math Project
Objective
Students factor 365 in an attempt to create a better system of months and weeks than our current calendar.
This video is a simplified version of the Create A Civilization: Calendars video.
Steps
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Students are asked (by the Supreme Council for Calendars) to clear up the confusing mess of 28, 30, and 31-day months by factoring 365.
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Students will discover that 365 has very few factors: 1, 5, 73, and 365 -- not so great for even months. We introduce intercalary days: days outside of any month. Students reserve a few days for a special holiday, then create nice, even months.
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Now students will divide those months into even weeks so that the year and each month have nice, whole numbers of weeks.
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Finally, we do some naming: what will we call our months? What about our days of the week?