Easy Ways to Read Julian Dates: 8 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow (2024)

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1Reading JD on Packaged Food

2Reading a JD in Astronomy

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Julian dates (JD) are a continuous count of days since noon Universal Time on January 1, 4713 BC. Astronomers often use Julian dates as a standardized form of timekeeping. Food manufacturers also sometimes use JD, though their dates are calculated differently. JD aren’t very intuitive to understand for those of us used to the Gregorian calendar, so there are a few tricks to reading them. Since JD are written in different ways depending on the context, make sure you are using the method that fits which kind of JD you have in front of you.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Reading JD on Packaged Food

  1. 1

    Locate the 3-7 digit number stamped on your food. Packaged food items sometimes have “Julian Dates” stamped on them that represent the packing date. These dates are 3-7 digits long, and are calculated differently from JD used in astronomy.[1]

    • Common locations for these numbers include the sides of cartons or the bottom of cans.
    • If your packaged food has a "best-by" date, it should be displayed in a normal calendar format, rather than a Julian date, so you don't need to bother converting anything.[2]
  2. 2

    Find the year by looking at the first 2 digits if the number is 5 digits long. For example, if it’s a 5-digit number and the first 2 digits are 16, then that corresponds to 2016. If the number is only 3 digits long, on a more perishable item, such as eggs, you can assume it was packed in the current year.[3]

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  3. 3

    Find the year from the first 4 digits if the number has 7 digits. Some JD will show the full year in 4 digits for added clarity. For example, if it’s a 7 digit number and the first 4 digits are 1997, then that corresponds to 1997.[4]

  4. 4

    Convert the last 3 digits to the calendar day. The last 3 digits refer to the day of packaging, counting up from January 1 as 001. They represent the consecutive days of the year. You can convert to Gregorian calendar using this chart, but make sure to take into account whether or not you are in a leap year: https://www.scp.byu.edu/docs/doychart.html.[5]

    • For example, if the JD was 17234, then the year would be 2017, which is not a leap year, so 234 corresponds to the day August 22, 2017.
    • If the JD was 2000107, then the year is 2000, which is a leap year, so the date would be April 16, 2000.
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  1. 1

    Figure out if it’s a JD in astronomy. When an astronomer reports a sighting, they often report this information in a Julian Date, rather than using a Gregorian calendar date and the time of day. If you’re trying to read a weird-looking date from the back of a can, check out the first method instead. The current Julian date in is about 2500000, so if it’s close to that, that’s a good tip off, too.

    • If it says MJD next to the number, it’s a modified Julian date, which is related by the formula MJD = JD - 2400000.5
  2. 2

    Look up an online tool that converts from JD to Gregorian calendar date. Converting from JD to Gregorian is quite complicated. If you did it by hand, you would have to take into account leap years, conversions between different calendars, and time zones, so it is best to use a program that already takes into account these factors to avoid mistakes.

    • Make sure you are using a calculator from a reputable site.
  3. 3

    Type in the Julian date and the computer will do the work for you. Simply enter the Julian number into the box that says JD. The astronomers or military officers who wrote up the computer program took into account all the tricky time changes between now and January 1, 4713, so you can trust their hard work.[6]

    • For example, if you typed in the Julian Date 2435000, it would convert to 12:0:0.00 UT on September 14, 1954.
  4. 4

    Convert from Universal Time to your time zone. Universal time, also known as Greenwich Mean Time, may not be your time zone. Depending on your time zone, you will have to subtract a certain number of hours from the UT.

    • For example, 12:00 UT would be 5 am Pacific Standard Time and 8 am Eastern Standard Time.
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    What is the Julian date and how is it calculated?

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    A Julian date is a count of the number of days that have elapsed since noon on January 1, 4137 BC. It’s calculated by adding up all the full days that have passed since that date, then adding any additional elapsed hours, minutes, and seconds in a decimal format. The date is based on a cyclical period of 7980 years, so the next Julian period would begin in AD 3268, at which point the count would be reset.

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    How do you convert a Julian date to a Gregorian date?

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    There are a few calculators and convertors online you can use to do this quickly and easily. Doing the conversion yourself involves a long series of calculations. You can find more information at quasar.as.utexas.edu/BillInfo/JulianDatesG.html.

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    How many digits are in a Julian date?

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    Julian dates typically contain a total of 5 digits, with 2 digits representing the year and 3 representing the day.

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      About This Article

      Easy Ways to Read Julian Dates: 8 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow (33)

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      Easy Ways to Read Julian Dates: 8 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow (2024)

      FAQs

      How do you read Julian code dates? ›

      The first two digits are the last numbers of the year and the three digits after the hyphen are the day of that year. So, for instance, a Julian date of 21-001 represents the first day of the year 2021, or January 1, 2021, while a Julian date of 22-165 represents the 165th day of the year 2022 or June 14, 2022.

      How do you read a 6 digit Julian date? ›

      It is a 6 digit number, that can be used to represent a date between 1st January 1900 to 31st Dec 2899. YY stands for the year of that particular century. DDD stands for the day of that particular year of that particular century.

      What is todays Julian date code? ›

      Today's date is 14-Jan-2023 (UTC). Today's Julian Date is 23014 .

      What is a Julian date format? ›

      A Julian date is sometimes used to refer to a date format that is a combination of the current year and the number of days since the beginning of the year. For example, January 1, 2007 is represented as 2007001 and December 31, 2007 is represented as 2007365.

      How do you read an 8 digit expiration date? ›

      Match an all-numerical code with a “month, day, year” sequence.
      1. For example, “121518” would be read as December 15, 2018.
      2. Certain brands use a year-month-day sequence, where December 15, 2018, would be written as “181215”.

      How do you read a Julian date 4 digit? ›

      The first number of the Julian Date represents the year. The last three numbers represent the day that it was manufactured. So for example, if the manufacture date was listed as 1067 that would mean that the MRE was manufactured on March 7, 2011.

      What are Julian numbers? ›

      1) Not to be confused with the Julian calendar, a Julian date or day number is the number of elapsed days since the beginning of a cycle of 7,980 years invented by Joseph Scaliger in 1583.

      How do you read a 5 digit date code? ›

      The Julian date format is a five digit number broken into two parts: a two-digit representation of the year followed by a three-digit representation of the day of the year. For example, January 1st, 1999 is 99001 in Julian format.

      How long is a Julian day? ›

      Thus the Julian Period is calculated to be 7980 years long or 2,914,695 days because 19*28*15 = 7980.
      ...
      The Julian Calendar.
      Used inThe Roman Empire and some Christian churches
      Accuracy11 min/year or 1 day in 128 years
      Number of daysCommon year: 365 Leap year: 366
      Number of months12
      Correction mechanismLeap day
      1 more row

      How long is a Julian date? ›

      Year length; leap years

      The Julian calendar has two types of year: "normal" years of 365 days and "leap" years of 366 days. There is a simple cycle of three "normal" years followed by a leap year and this pattern repeats forever without exception. The Julian year is, therefore, on average 365.25 days long.

      How to read dates? ›

      In written American English, the month of the date comes before the day and year. For example, Independence Day in the USA is on July 4th each year. In the year 2000 the date was 4/7/2000 in British English. In American English this is written 7/4/2000.

      What is the shelf life of 8s? ›

      n. 1. Life for one's self; living solely or chiefly for one's own pleasure or good.

      What is the date code? ›

      These codes have two letters and four digits. The letters are the factor location. The first and third numbers are the week of the year it was manufactured, and the second and fourth numbers are the year. A code MM3048 from this era would show a bag made on the 34th week of 2008.

      What is date number format? ›

      For example, you can use the MM/DD/YYYY format for dates (the North American format) or you may be set up to also allow DD/MM/YYYY, MMM-DD-YY, or MM-DD-YY HH:MM:SS.

      How do you write the date in digits? ›

      The international standard recommends writing the date as year, then month, then the day: YYYY-MM-DD.

      What is the 276 day of the year? ›

      October 3 is the 276th day of the year (277th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 89 days remain until the end of the year.

      How do you decipher date codes? ›

      The date codes are generally in four digit codes. The first two numbers cover the year and the second two are for the week they were manufactured. So the example below shows the four numbers 8332 - made in 1983 in the 32nd week of that year.

      How do you calculate a date number? ›

      What is the method used to calculate how many days there are between two dates?
      1. Subtract the start year from the end year. ...
      2. Find the number of months from September 2021 to June 2022. ...
      3. Add the total number of days together and round the final answer: 18,627 + 273.94 = 18,902 .
      Dec 30, 2022

      What are date codes? ›

      Let's clear up what they mean. Codes from 2007 to 2021. These codes have two letters and four digits. The letters are the factor location. The first and third numbers are the week of the year it was manufactured, and the second and fourth numbers are the year.

      What is Julian date 313? ›

      Julian Day Table for Non-Leap Years
      DATEJANNOV
      99313
      1010314
      1111315
      1212316
      27 more rows

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