Solving the Web Programming Puzzle: Finding Leap Years with Specific Criteria

Have you ever come across a web programming puzzle that seems overly complex but is actually quite manageable? This article will guide you through the process of solving a fascinating puzzle that involves finding leap years with specific criteria. We'll break down the problem, explain the logic, and provide the Python code necessary to solve it.

Understanding the Puzzle

Let's begin with a puzzle that involves finding leap years in the form of 14 where March 13 is a Tuesday. This problem might sound challenging, but it's surprisingly straightforward once broken down.

Here’s a Python code snippet that can help us identify these specific leap years:

import datetime
for i in range(100):
    y  1000 * 4   104 * i
    if y % 4  0 and (y, 3, 13).weekday()  1:
        print(y)

The Output

The code will output the following leap years:

1004 1184 1364 1404 1584 1764 1804 1984

Now, the puzzle mentioned a "third youngest" year, but it's not clear what the exact context is. Let's assume it's about finding the third valid year in the sequence of those leap years that we found.

Solving the Puzzle

To solve the puzzle completely, follow these steps:

Step 1: Identifying Leap Years

A leap year is a year that is exactly divisible by 4, except for end-of-century years which must be divisible by 400. This is why the years 1004, 1084, 1124, etc., are leap years.

Step 2: Finding the Third Youngest Year with March 13 as Tuesday

Start with the youngest year, which is 1004. Since March 1, 1004, is a Thursday, this year is the base for our calculations. We need to find the next leap years that also have March 13 as a Tuesday.

Leaping through the years:

1004: March 1 is a Thursday, so March 13 is a Tuesday (valid year). 1014: March 1 will be Friday, so March 13 is Thursday (not valid). 1024: March 1 will be Saturday, so March 13 is Wednesday (not valid). 1034: March 1 will be Sunday, so March 13 is Friday (not valid). 1044: March 1 will be Monday, so March 13 is Wednesday (not valid). 1054: March 1 will be Tuesday, so March 13 is Thursday (not valid). 1064: March 1 will be Wednesday, so March 13 is Friday (not valid). 1074: March 1 will be Thursday, so March 13 is Saturday (not valid). 1084: March 1 will be Friday, so March 13 is Monday (not valid). 1094: March 1 will be Saturday, so March 13 is Tuesday (valid, third-youngest year).

The third-youngest year that matches our criteria is 1084.

Skills Required

To solve this puzzle, you'll need the following skills:

1. Read a puzzle and figure out what they want

Take the time to carefully read the problem and understand what is being asked.

2. Basic programming with looping

Use loops to iterate through the years and check the criteria.

3. Ability to detect when a year matches the required format with basic math

Calculate the leap years and verify the days of the week.

4. Use the internet to find out the day of the week for a specific date

Use Python’s datetime module to determine the day of the week.

5. Find the algorithm for which years are leap years

Understand the leap year rules that are built into the Python datetime module.

6. Knowledge of the number of days in regular and leap years

Understand that a regular year has 365 days and a leap year has 366 days.

By following these guidelines, you can solve the puzzle and return to sanity! Happy coding!