A friend of mine has an excellent memory for dates and events that occurred on that date, but his party piece is the ability to tell you the day of the week that fell of any given date. This talent is all the more extraordinary because the answer comes back in less than 2 seconds (often under 1 second). By his own admission he is no mathematician.
Now his memory and knowledge are without question, but I challenged him that because of its diversity this party piece could not be based upon memory, but on mathematics. I believe that with the correct mathematical approach and the use of a common algorithm, anyone with a basic mathematical mind can do this in their head.
