Saturday, January 2, 2010

01/02/2010

Sir Corithius of Crystal Court doesn't email me all that often. In fact, he's emailed me just once. It basically said, some days may seem pretty much the same forward or backward, but some days really are.

Sir Corithius, if you remember from my October 7 blog, loves palindromes. And today, as it turns out, is one: 01/02/2010. Reverse the numbers and you get the same symmetrical sequence.

This is only the second date of that pattern for this century. The other was last October 2, 2001 (10022001). Before that date, you've got to go back 621 years ago, August 31, 1380 (08311380).

In my blog, I intorducd you palindromes in a rant which began:

Dammit, I'm mad!
Are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era?
Egad, a base life defiles a bad age.

Sir Dayvid followed up a few days later with his unique Ambigrams.

While palindrome words are dramatic, palindrome dates are curious, as they are extremely rare.

An electrical engineering professor at the University of Portland, Oregon has a complete list of these dates. Aziz Inan (pictured). An example of his findings is that there will be 12 palindrome dates in the 21st century (2001-2100) and all of them will fall on the second day of a month. The next palindrome date is on November 2, 2011 (11022011). Take a stab at the remaining nine dates.


There will be 12 more MM/DD/YYYY palindromes in the 22nd Century and 12 more in the 23rd. But after that, the next such palindrome period won’t happen for 711 years, and a day like today won’t return for millenniums.

“I suggest we enjoy this special day to its full extent,” Inan said, “because once this date is over, the next Jan. 2 palindrome date will not occur for another 10,000 years — until 01/02/12010.”

Thanks to Sir Corithius, Drab as a fool, as aloof as a bard.

4 comments:

dkWells said...

That's some awesome stats! A truly unique day for the Knights of Moleskine, Spirit and Ale. Thank you Sir Corithius and Sir Bowie!

We need to make a note to through a KMSA party on 11/02/2011!

Sir Hook Who Lived Once in Ten Thousand Years of Warrick

dkWells said...

That would be throw!

Sir Hook the Spell Check Challenged of Warrick

Anonymous said...

Boys Boys Boys...you know that only works in the Weirdo States of
aMerkin....the rest of the English speaking planet.( and probably the non engish speaking too )....put the DAY First...then the MONTH and then the YEAR...lol...

so we will be doing all this on the 1st of February 2010 :)


Sir D of Normals-ville UK...

Sir Bowie of Greenbriar (a.k.a. David A. Kuhn) said...

You're just jealous because we got ours in first!

Good to have you back.

Sir Eiwobbowie of Greenbriar