As readers of this previous post will know, I’m rather fond of mental calendar calculations. My friend Al Stanger, with whom I share a passion for recreational mathematics, came up with a remarkable procedure for finding the day of the week corresponding to any date in history using just a handful of playing cards. What’s particularly noteworthy about Al’s algorithm is that it involves no calculations whatsoever, and the information which needs to be looked up can be cleanly displayed on one of the cards.

When you work through Al’s procedure, it will feel like you’re performing a card trick on yourself – you will be amazed, surprised, and will likely have no idea how it works. I’ve never seen anything quite like this before, and I’m grateful to Al for allowing me to share his discovery with the public for the first time here on this blog.