Talk at the Jewish Calendar Seminar on
Wednesday, 9 Iyar (May 18), 4-5 pm

Speaker: Prof. Haim Halpern (Dept. of Physics, Bar-Ilan University)

Title: "Statistics of the Jewish Calendar"

Abstract:
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In the present century, 5701-5800, there are some interesting sequences of
years. For instance, the first example of Rosh Hashanah falling on the
same day of the week in 4 out of 5 successive years started in 5760, but
between them and 5800 this happens another three times. On the other hand,
there are 6 pairs of sequences ABCABC for the first day of Rosh Hashanah
in this century. Another interesting fact is that the first day of Pesach
falls on Sunday 11 times in this century, which is close to the average
frequency, but with an uneven distribution, so that twice this happened 3
times within 8 years. It will be explained how these and other features of
the Jewish calendar, such as the relative frequency of the different days
of the week for Rosh Hashanah, all follow from the rules determining the
calendar.