January 2026
Problem of the Month

New Year's Resolution
by Kipp Johnson, Valley Catholic School in Beaverton, Oregon

Kipp Johnson saw this inspirational quote online, which could be used for your New Year's Resolution (if you correct the math!):

"If you improve by 1% every day, within a year you will have improved by 365%."

Kipp noted that the math is just wrong.   What is the correct percentage increase?

Solution to the Problem:

The answer is 3678% improvement.

If you truly improve by 1% per day, the growth is compound, not additive.

So the correct calculation is:

(1.01)^365 − 1

Using this:
(1.01)^365 ≈ 37.7834

That means your improvement is about:
37.7834 − 1 = 36.7834 times better

Kipp noted that:
There's a small trap at the end in correctly figuring the percentage.   The original amount is multiplied by 37.783, which means that the percentage increase is 3678%, not 3778%.

Correctly solved by:

1. Kamal Lohia	Hisar, Haryana, India
2. Dr. Hari Kishan	D.N. College, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India
3. Davit Banana	Istanbul, Turkey
4. Colin (Yowie) Bowey	Beechworth, Victoria, Australia
5. David Marks	San Mateo, California, USA
6. Ivy Joseph	Pune, Maharashtra, India

Send any comments or questions to: David Pleacher