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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original article was at Symmetry454 Calendar. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with the Calendar Wikia, the text of Wikipedia is available under Creative Commons License. See Wikia:Licensing. |
The Symmetry454 Calendar (Sym454) is a proposal for Gregorian calendar reform developed by Dr. Irv Bromberg of the University of Toronto, Canada.
It is a perpetual solar calendar that conserves the traditional 7-day week, has symmetrical equal quarters, and starts every month on Monday.
| Month | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
| Quarter | Q1-1 | Q1-2 | Q1-3 | Q2-1 | Q2-2 | Q2-3 | Q3-1 | Q3-2 | Q3-3 | Q4-1 | Q4-2 | Q4-3 |
| Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | |||||||||
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| Q1 |
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| Q2 |
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| Q3 |
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| Q4 |
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(Days 29 through 35 of December are intercalary days – forming a leap week – that are appended only to the end of leap years.)
Background[]
The idea of months having 4 or 5 whole weeks is not new, having been proposed in the 1970s by Chris Carrier for the Bonavian Civil Calendar and by Joseph Shteinberg for his "Calendar Without Split Weeks"©. Whereas the former has 5 + 4 + 4 weeks per quarter, and the latter has 4 + 4 + 5 weeks per quarter, the Symmetry454 Calendar has a symmetrical 4 + 5 + 4 weeks per quarter, which is why it is named Symmetry454. (Note that there is no space between "Symmetry" and "454".)
Balanced quarters are desirable for businesses because they aid in fiscal planning and analysis.
All months have a whole number of weeks, so no month ever has a partial week. Each day number within a month falls on the same weekday in all months.
All holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. are permanently fixed. All ordinal day and week numbers within the year are also permanently fixed.
"Friday the 13th" never occurs.
Leap Rule[]
Unlike the World Calendar or the International Fixed Calendar (also known as the 13-Month Calendar), there are no individually scheduled intercalary "null" days outside of the traditional 7-day week. Instead, alignment of the weekday cycle with New Year Day is accomplished by using a leap week, which is appended once every 6 or 5 years. In leap years, December becomes a 5-week month. The leap week is shown in grey text in the above calendar year.
The preferred Symmetry454 leap rule is based upon a symmetrical 293-year leap cycle having 52 leap years at intervals that are as smoothly spread as possible:
It is a leap year only if the remainder of ( 52 × Year + 146 ) / 293 is less than 52.
This expression not only causes the 293-year cycle to be symmetrical, but divides it symmetrically into symmetrical parts of 11 years where the 3rd and 9th year have a leap week and 17 years where the 15th year also has a leap week. These parts group symmetrically into groups of 45 years = (17+11+17) and 79 years = (17+17+11+17+17). The 293-year cycle is formed of these as 293 = 45 + 79 + 45 + 79 + 45 =
(17+11+17) + (17+17+11+17+17) + (17+11+17) + (17+17+11+17+17) + (17+11+17).
The Symmetry454 calendar mean year ≡ 365+71/293 days ≡ 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 56+152/293 seconds. This is intentionally slightly shorter than the present era mean northward equinoctial year of about 365 days 5 hours 49 minutes 0 seconds, ensuring essentially drift-free performance for more than 4 future millennia.
Calendar Arithmetic[]
The Kalendis calendar calculator demonstrates the Symmetry454 calendar and interconverts dates between Symmetry454 and a variety of other calendars.
The Symmetry454 arithmetic is fully documented and placed in the public domain for royalty-free computer implementation.
Officially, Symmetry454 has been running since January 1st, 2005, which was the first New Year Day after it came into existence. Its proleptic epoch, however, was on the same day as the proleptic epoch of the Gregorian Calendar = January 1st, 1 AD.
Easter on a fixed date[]
Tentatively, Sunday the 7th of April on the Symmetry454 Calendar is proposed as a fixed date for Easter, based on a frequency analysis of the distribution of the Gregorian or Astronomical Easter dates. There are only a few dates that Easter can possibly land on within the Symmetry454 Calendar, because only day numbers divisible by 7 can be a Sunday. The 3 highest-frequency dates upon which Easter can land are March 28th, April 7th, and April 14th. Selecting the middle date, April 7th, would fix Easter at its median position within its distribution range.
See also[]
- Symmetry010 Calendar, the same with 30:31:30-day quarters
- Calendar reform
External links[]
- The Symmetry454 Calendar (full specifications, FAQs, arithmetic)
- The Kalendis Calendar Calculator (freeware)
- The Lengths of the Seasons (numerical integration analysis)
- Solar Calendar Leap Rule Studies (shows why the 52/293 leap rule is preferred)
References[]
- "Designs for a new year", in the "Innovators" section of the Toronto Star newspaper, Friday, December 24, 2004, page A3, by reporter Peter Gorrie.
- "Star Trek Math Inspires Calendar Reform", Discovery Channel, Thursday, December 30, 2004, by Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News.
- "Time and Again, the Calendar Comes Up Short: Sticklers for Symmetry Lament Imperfections in the 400-Year-Old Gregorian System; Earth's Inconvenient Orbit", The Wall Street Journal, December 31, 2009, by Charles Forelle, The Numbers Guy.
- "New Year’s Revolution: A proposed new calendar would give February an extra week and start every month on a Monday", University of Toronto Magazine, in Leading Edge, Winter 2011, by Scott Anderson.