Minus' Solution to

Love Is In the Air
Posted October 14 - 20, 1996

Given that it is 1996 now, there are no years left in the remainder of the 1990s which read forward the same as it does backward. The first year that qualifies is 2002.

The first month with 31 days that follows a month with 30 days is May.

So Trent is assured that he will meet his true love in May of 2002.


Your Solutions

Minus was flooded with solutions this week. Thus, our fat mascot suggested that we post only the tastiest solutions and give honorable mention to everyone else who sent in a tender morsel. What's Minus' criteria for great tasting solutions? They have to be FULL-filling! Here they are:

Nicholas McNaughton, Michael Sharp and Jeremy Birch of Christ Church Grammar School in Western Australia gave Minus the most complete solution. Watch out for Minus, boys. He loves toying with surfers!

Poor Trent has invested his precious money in the service of Madame Mathematicus only to be told that he won't meet his true love until 5 and a half years from now, May 2002. The way that our group worked this lovely question out was purely logical. The first year in the future that reads backwards the same as it reads foward since 1991 is the year 2002. The first month that has 31 days and follows a month with 30 days in May.

Catch you on the next wave!



Simon Blackwell's group, at Christ Church Grammar School, made no mistake about the next palindromic year:

Our group got the answer of May 2002. We got this answer by working out the next palindromic year which is 2002 . We got the month by finding the first month with 30 days which is April then went to the next month which is May


Scott Glasson and company were not to be out-done by their classmates at Christ Church. His group used a calender to find the month.

We firstly worked out that the year (same forwards as backwards) was 2002. Then we looked on the calendar and found that the month was May


And here's "Mr. Caps Lock" (a.k.a ANDREW PULLINGER) of Christ Church Grammar School: 

AFTER SEVERAL TEDIOUS HOURS SLAVING AWAY OUR GROUP IS EXTREMELY CONFIDENT OF THE FOLLOWING SOLUTION: WE KNOW THAT THE SOLUTION IS THE MONTH OF MAY IN THE YEAR TWO THOUSAND AND TWO (2002) THAT TRENT WILL MEET HIS LOVE. 2002 IS THE CLOSEST YEAR WHERE THE NUMBER READS THE SAME BACKWARDS OR FORWARDS.



Honorable mention goes to the following feeders who submitted correct answers, but did not offer an explanation:

Ron Moline [moline@upanet.uleth.ca]
Nick Burazin [haskins-stay2@nova.novanet.org]
South Students [South@lynbrook.k12.ny.us]
Michael Baybliss [baybliss@ccgs.wa.edu.au]
Tim Morgan [morant@ccgs.wa.edu.au]
Christain Tawfik [Christian_Tawfik@blackbox.at]
John Moser [JohnMoser@msn.com]

Fabulous work, everyone!
Your tasty solutions have turned
our mascot into a choosy eater.