If February 1, 1996 is Wednesday, what day is March 3, 1996 ?
Saturday
3 March 1996 was a Saturday — option 3.
Step 1 — is 1996 a leap year ? A year is a leap year if it is divisible by 4, except that a century year must be divisible by 400. Now
\(1996\div4=499\)
exactly, and 1996 is not a century year, so it is a leap year and February has 29 days. This is the single fact the question is built on.
Step 2 — count the days from 1 February to 3 March.
| Stretch | Days |
|---|---|
| 1 February to 29 February | 28 |
| 29 February to 3 March | 3 |
| Total | 31 |
Step 3 — reduce by sevens. Only the remainder on division by 7 matters, since the days of the week repeat every seven days :
\(31=7\times4+3\qquad\Rightarrow\qquad\text{odd days}=3\)
Step 4 — count forward. Three days after Wednesday :
Wednesday → Thursday → Friday → Saturday
A check by another route. If 1 February is a Wednesday, then 8, 15, 22 and 29 February are all Wednesdays. So 29 February is a Wednesday, 1 March is a Thursday, 2 March a Friday, and 3 March a Saturday — the same answer, arrived at without any arithmetic.
The trap. Treating February as having 28 days gives a total of 30 days, an odd-day count of 2, and the answer Friday — which is option 1, placed there for exactly that mistake. Checking the leap year first is what avoids it.
Hence, the answer is Saturday.
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