Ken's Puzzle of the Week

Calendar Fractions

Write each date on a calendar as a fraction MM/DD.  Every month has some fractions which are equivalent in other months.  For example,  January 2 (1/2) is equivalent to February 4 (2/4) and September 18 (9/18).

  1. Which month has the greatest number of unique fractions (how many)?
  2. Which month has the least number of unique fractions (how many)?
  3. (Advanced) How many different fractions exist in 2008?  You may count the first instance of an equivalent fraction (count March 5, but not September 15.)
Source: Original.
Solutions were received from Mark Rickert, Bill Chapp, Joseph DeVincentis and Kirk Bresniker. Joseph sent this analysis.

1/1 to 1/14 are repeated as the even denominators among 2/2 to 2/28 (14 dates), and some of them are additionally repeated as 3/3 to 3/30 (10 dates), 4/4 to 4/28 (7 dates), 5/5 to 5/30 (6 dates), 6/6 to 6/30 (5 dates), 7/7 to 7/28 (4 dates), 8/8 to 8/24 (3 dates), 9/9 to 9/27 (3 dates), 10/10 to 10/30 (3 dates), 11/11, 11/22, 12/12, and 12/24

In addition, the odd denominators of 2/1 to 2/15 are repeated as 4/2 to 4/30 (8 dates not already counted), and some of them as 6/3 to 6/27 (5 dates), 8/4 to 8/28 (4 dates), 10/5 to 10/25 (3 dates), and 12/6 to 12/30 (3 dates).

The non-multiple-of-3 denominators from 3/1 to 3/14 are repeated as 6/2 to 6/28 (10 dates), and some of them as 9/3 to 9/30 (7 dates) and 12/4 to 12/28 (5 dates).

The odd denominators 4/1 to 4/15 are repeated as 8/2 to 8/30 (8 dates) and some of them as 12/3 to 12/27 (5 dates).

The non-multiple-of-5 denominators 5/1 to 5/14 are repeated as 10/2 to 10/28 (12 dates).

The dates 6/1, 6/5, 6/7, 6/11, and 6/13 are repeated as 12/2, 12/10, 12/14, 12/22, and 12/26.

Subtracting each of these numbers from the total days in the month, you can find the total number of unique fractions for each month, and by not deleting them from the first month where they occur, the total number of unique fractions in the year (which includes a leap day).

Month  Total Unique    First
Number Days  Fractions Occurrences
  1     31      17       31
  2     29       7       15
  3     31      11       21
  4     30       7       15
  5     31      13       25
  6     30       5       10
  7     31      27       27
  8     31      16       16
  9     30      20       20
 10     31      13       13
 11     30      28       28
 12     31      11       11
Total # of fractions:   232
This reveals that June has the fewest unique fractions (only 5: 6/17, 6/19, 6/23, 6/25, 6/29), November has the most (28, all but 11/11 and 11/22), and the total number of unique fractions in a leap year is 232.


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