If 1 January 2013 was a Wednesday, then on which day of the week did 2 January 2014 fall?

Introduction / Context:
This question spans slightly more than one year. You are told that 1 January 2013 was a Wednesday and must find the weekday of 2 January 2014. It tests your ability to handle full year shifts and additional days, making careful use of leap year knowledge and odd day calculations.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• 1 January 2013 was a Wednesday.
• We must find the weekday on 2 January 2014.
• Year 2013 is a normal year with 365 days.
• 2014 is also a normal year, but we are interested only in the first two days of 2014.

Concept / Approach:
The intervals to consider are from 1 January 2013 to 1 January 2014, and then from 1 January 2014 to 2 January 2014. The year 2013 contributes its odd days, and the extra day in 2014 shifts the weekday further by one. By summing all odd days and adding them to the weekday of 1 January 2013, we obtain the weekday for 2 January 2014.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: 2013 is not a leap year, so it has 365 days. Step 2: From 1 January 2013 to 1 January 2014, there are 365 days. Step 3: 365 days give 1 odd day because 365 = 7 * 52 + 1. Step 4: Therefore, 1 January 2014 is one weekday ahead of 1 January 2013. Since 1 January 2013 is Wednesday, 1 January 2014 is Thursday. Step 5: From 1 January 2014 to 2 January 2014 is exactly 1 day, giving another odd day. Step 6: Add this second odd day: from Thursday we move one day forward to Friday. Hence, 2 January 2014 is a Friday.

Verification / Alternative check:
Instead of splitting the interval, you can think of going directly from 1 January 2013 to 2 January 2014. That is 366 days. Dividing 366 by 7 gives 2 odd days. Starting from Wednesday and adding two days yields Friday. Both methods agree, which confirms the correctness of the result.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Wednesday: This would require zero odd days, which is impossible over 366 days.

Thursday: This would correspond to only one odd day, but there are two odd days in this interval.

Tuesday: This is two days behind Thursday and does not match the forward movement generated by the extra days.

Common Pitfalls:
A frequent mistake is to count only 365 days between 1 January 2013 and 2 January 2014 by overlooking the extra day in 2014. Another issue is mixing up whether to move forward or backward in time when dealing with days. Always map the interval size to odd days and then step forward carefully from the known weekday.

Final Answer:
Therefore, the day of the week on 2 January 2014 was Friday.