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The Week Counting Problem

On a discord I frequent, there are many channels and threads devoted to kinds of counting. One channel is simply adding 1, like normal counting. There are counting by 5s, 10s, 100s, 1000s. There is a section where the community can add sillier counting (or chaining) methods, and threads have been created which simply alternate 6 and 7, just saying “e”, using a random single emoji one after another, spelling out QUACK but alternating 1 letter & 2 letters at a time (Q, UA, C, KQ, U, AC, K, etc).

One such silly thread I devised, is counting by weeks, beginning with 1 week. After 3 weeks comes 1 month, and after 12 months 3 weeks comes 1 year. However, one user pointed out that from 1 week thru 1 year is actually only 48 counts, instead of 52 counts for 52 weeks of the year. Even if we complete the cycle to 1 year 1 week, since we started with 1 week and not 0-anything, that still only comes to 49 counts. If we did retro-insert an implied 0-week, that would still make only 50 counts. How do we account for the missing ones shy of 52?

4 counts 8 counts 12 counts 16 counts
1w 1m1w 2m1w 3m1w
2w 1m2w 2m2w 3m2w
3w 1m3w 2m3w 3m3w
1m 2m 3m 4m
20 counts 24 counts 28 counts 32 counts
4m1w 5m1w 6m1w 7m1w
4m2w 5m2w 6m2w 7m2w
4m3w 5m3w 6m3w 7m3w
5m 6m 7m 8m
36 counts 40 counts 44 counts 48 counts 49 counts
8m1w 9m1w 10m1w 11m1w  
8m2w 9m2w 10m2w 11m2w  
8m3w 9m3w 10m3w 11m3w  
9m 10m 11m 12m 12m1w

The question remains:


1. Need we bother, with ensuring each year comes up to 52 counts (since counts are not tallied in the actual process), and just leave it at the incompleteness of 52? The simple answer to that is no, and to just move on.

2. If do need bother, what solution should we apply, to ensure each of the 52 weeks is accounted for, but without interrupting the normal flow of the process?

Possible Solutions


Let's explore adding 1 leap weeks every 6 months: insert a 6m0w leap-week every 6 months, as a separate count from the normal 6m, so that we go 5m2w, 5m3w, 6m, 6m0w, 6m1w, 6m2w. That would show up as:

1 count 5 counts 9 counts 13 counts 17 counts
  1w 1m1w 2m1w 3m1w
  2w 1m2w 2m2w 3m2w
  3w 1m3w 2m3w 3m3w
  1m 2m 3m 4m
0m0w        
21 counts 26 counts 30 counts 34 counts
4m1w 5m1w 6m1w 7m1w
4m2w 5m2w 6m2w 7m2w
4m3w 5m3w 6m3w 7m3w
5m 6m 7m 8m
  6m0w    
38 counts 42 counts 46 counts 51 counts 52 counts
8m1w 9m1w 10m1w 11m1w 1y1w 
8m2w 9m2w 10m2w 11m2w  
8m3w 9m3w 10m3w 11m3w  
9m 10m 11m 1y  
      1y0w  

This seems like a viable solution, but wouldn't that therefore make the start of the next count of 1y2w be the starting count for the next 52, whereas the start of the first 52 was 0m0w?

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