Everyday Math: How to know whether it is the 1st, 2nd, etc. day of the month

Here is a simple calculation for everyday living.




Problem

There are events, meetings that sometimes happen on the 1st, 2nd,3rd or 4th day of the month. For example, some activities could be held every 2nd Sunday of the month or 4th Monday of the month. So how do you know that a date is the 2nd Monday or 4th Sunday of the month?

Solution
Divide the date by 7. If the quotient is a whole number, that's your answer. If it's not, the answer is obtained by rounding the quotient to the next whole number.

Examples
Example 1
December 14 is a Monday; 
14/7=2; 2 is a whole number. 
So December 14 is the 2nd Monday of the month.

Example 2
Today is Sunday, October 25. 
25/7= 3.something
3.something is not a whole number, so round it up to the next whole number, which is 4.
So October 25 is the 4th Sunday of the month.

Notes
In technical terms, the formula is Ceiling(Date/7)

where Ceiling is a function that rounds up non-whole numbers to the next whole number.

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