HWC Tutorial - Page 2 - Days
Let's say you know that the 2nd day of August falls on a Wednesday. What weekday is the 29th of August? Chances are you already have a favorite way to figure out the days inside the same month. But let's learn a systematic approach based on the HWC system that may be a good deal faster than your old favorite, and that will also give us some pointers we can use later on. Maybe you've always thought your way through the numeric days and weekdays all at the same time, like "Wednesday the 2nd, Thursday the 3rd, Friday the 4th..." until you make your way to "Monday to 7th." Then you skip on down to "Monday the 28th," because you know that 7 and 28 are both multiples of seven and so they fall on the same day of the week during the same month. Then you finish up with "Monday the 28th, Tuesday the 29th." And there's your answer. Not bad. But let's use that same multiples-of-seven idea with a HWC approach, to see what that will do for us.
Using the HWC Positions
This time, we start on the middle finger position, because that is the HWC position for the starting weekday, Wednesday. Now that you have your starting position, don't think about weekday names anymore until you're finished. Only think the numbers. The starting number is 2, because we know Wednesday the 2nd. Here's what you'll think: "2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7...28...29." Here are the positions you touch on the hand: middle, ring, pinkie, side, palm, thumb...stay on thumb...index. Try thinking the numbers while touching the positions, even if you have to go slowly at first. Try them again a couple of times until you can count off the numbers position by position, pause to change from 7 to 28 at the thumb, and finish out the last day afterwards. By forgetting about the weekday names, we can work up much more speed, because we're not trying to juggle two parallel sequences of information at the same time. Just count off the numbers, and let the hand positions take care of the weekdays for you. When you arrive at 29, the index position tells you that the answer is Tuesday.
Day Zero
Now let's learn a new idea that will make this example go much, much faster. Instead of counting up to 7, let's count down to zero. The 0th day is one day earlier than the 1st of the month. It's really the last day of the preceding month, but we can borrow it and rename it "0" to help us count in the current month. Day 0 falls on the same weekday as 7, and 14, and 21, and 28. It acts like a multiple of seven. So our same example now works like this: "2, 1, 0...28...29", touching: middle, index, thumb...stay on thumb...index.
Here's how we count from one day of the month to another day in the same month:
- Start on the HWC hand position for the starting (known) weekday, and think its numeric day.
- If the target day is within seven days, count day-by-day directly. Move 1 position forward to add a day, move 1 position backward to subtract a day, as many times as needed.
- If the target day is more than seven days away, use the Elevator Method as a shortcut.
- Find the elevator: Move day-by-day to the nearest multiple of seven on this list: 0, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35.
- Ride the elevator: Without moving, change in your mind to the multiple of seven nearest the target day.
- Step out of the elevator: Move day-by-day from the elevator position to the target day.
You may have a couple of questions at this point. For one thing, what is this "target" business all about? I hope you figured out by context that the "target date" is simply the date whose weekday you are seeking. The other thing is, why did I include 35 if there are at most 31 days in month? Isn't the 31st closer to 28 than to 35? Yes, but 35 will come in handy later when we talk about the different months. If you know the multiples of seven up to 35, you're all set for now and for later.
The Elevator
To move from week to week quickly inside of month, we take advantage of the multiples of seven: 0, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35. All of these dates fall on the same day of the week during the same month. And there's one of them located within three days of any date in the month. Whenever we find any multiple of seven, we can pause on that HWC hand position, and simply re-think to any other multiple of seven in that month. It's like riding an elevator from week to week. Once we've found our "floor," we just "step out" a day at a time to the target date, which should be within three days in one direction or the other. The following illustration should help clarify this the elevator technique.
This layout may look something like a calendar month, but it isn't. It's an illustration of the power of the elevator position. I've placed the multiples of seven (up to 28) in the center column so that they look like they fall on Wednesdays. But the same concept works regardless of which weekday the multiples of seven occupy.
No matter what your starting date is, and no matter what your target date is, there is a multiple of seven within three days of each one. The longest move you ever need to make is three days to the elevator, change multiples, and three more days to the target day. But if you go the wrong way and move, let's say, 5 days forward instead of 2 days backward, it's no great loss. You'll still find your way to a correct result. In fact, you might want to try, just for the sake of having done it once, starting on Tuesday the 1st (index), and count out a day at a time all the way through the month to Thursday the 31st (ring). With HWC, even counting out the entire month goes surprisingly fast. So don't get overly worried about counting a few more days than you have to.
The Weekday
Once you've found your way to the target date, all you need to do is read the ending HWC hand position as a day of the week, as illustrated in the chart shown earlier. Once again:
- Read the five fingers left to right (thumb to pinkie) as the five days of the "work week," Monday through Friday.
- Read the side (or "end") of the hand as Saturday, as in "weekend."
- Read the palm as Sunday, as in "Palm Sunday."
Incidentally, my own worst habit at this point is hastily misreading the index position to be Monday. It's not. It's Tuesday. The thumb is Monday. Maybe you weren't prone to that error until I mentioned it, but it's worth being sure about, especially while you're learning.