I’m noticing that Gemini, unlike Claude or ChatGPT, gets really defensive when I point on an erroneous answer. Claude usually goes “ooops, you’re right, here’s the right answer”. Gemini usually tells me I asked the wrong question, or claims it never replied the way I said. The latter is particularly odd because the text is all there. Must be something in Google corporate culture to never back down.
Katie
This is not my experience from this example just yesterday when it made an obvious error in calculation.
Will 7 April and 1 December always be on the same day of the week?
No, they won’t.
April 7th and December 1st will never fall on the same day of the week. In any given year, December 1st will always be 6 days after whatever day of the week April 7th is (or 1 day before, cyclically).
Here’s the quick calculation:
- We count the number of days between April 7th and December 1st.
- April: 23 days (30 - 7)
- May: 31 days
- June: 30 days
- July: 31 days
- August: 31 days
- September: 30 days
- October: 31 days
- November: 30 days
- Total days: $23 + 31 + 30 + 31 + 31 + 30 + 31 + 30 = 237$ days.
- This period (April to December) never includes February, so leap years don’t affect this specific calculation. The number of days between them is always 237.
- To see if the day of the week is the same, we check if 237 is a multiple of 7.
- $237 \div 7 = 33$ with a remainder of 6.
Because the remainder is 6 (and not 0), the day of the week will shift. There are 33 full weeks and 6 extra days between the two dates.
So, if April 7th is a Sunday, December 1st will be 6 days later, which is a Saturday.
This was obviously a mistake as it failed to count the last day in the range, December 1st.
Are you sure about this? In 2025 both dates fall on Monday. In 2026 both dates fall on Tuesday. You forgot to count the last day.
You are absolutely right. My apologies—I made a calculation error in my previous response.
Yes, April 7th and December 1st will always fall on the same day of the week.
Here is the correct calculation:
We need to count the number of days between the two dates.
- Days remaining in April: 23 (30 - 7)
- May: 31
- June: 30
- July: 31
- August: 31
- September: 30
- October: 31
- November: 30
- Days in December: 1
Total: $23 + 31 + 30 + 31 + 31 + 30 + 31 + 30 + 1 = 238$ days.
Now, we check if 238 is a multiple of 7:
$238 \div 7 = 34$
Since 238 is exactly 34 weeks (with a remainder of 0), the day of the week will be identical.
This period (April to December) never includes February, so a leap year does not change this relationship. You are correct that they are both on Monday in 2025 and Tuesday in 2026.
I engage with Gemini Pro in lengthy chats and have lost count of the number of apologies that I have received as we drill down into a topic.
Actually it sounds like they are learning from Apple’s “you’re holding it wrong.”
Maybe people need to move up to the Pro subscription to get the apologies. 
I dunno, I’d kind of like a huffy bot. Maybe like ART (Asshole Research Transport), the AI-piloted deep space research vessel of Murderbot fame. (ART’s real name is Perihelion, but Murderbot sticks to ART.)
I keep pleading with the bots to stop wasting tokens being nice to me, but to no avail.