Is there a palindrome in 2023?
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A palindrome is a word that is spelled the same backwards and forwards, like toot and racecar. Can you think of any others? It turns out numbers can do the same thing — like today’s date! Today is written as 1/20/21, which means the 20th day of the 1st month (January). In fact, we’re just starting a whole stretch of palindrome days that will last through 1/29/21. Don’t forget, 1/2/21 was a palindrome, too! We’ve been having cool streaks like
this for the past few years, like 9/17/19, and 8/12/18…but today is extra special because it works even with the full year: 1/20/2021! Let’s see how often these cool dates happen. Wee ones: How do you say “123” in backwards order? Little kids: If you say “221” in backwards order, is it the same or different? How about 454? Bonus: How old will you be the next time your age is the same backwards and forwards? Big kids: The digits of 1/20/21 add
up to 6 (1 + 2 + 0 + 2 + 1). What’s the next date (using 2 digits for the year) with digits that add up to 6? Bonus: Are there any more future dates in 2021 with digits that add up to 6? The sky’s the limit: If you’re allowed to write both the month and year as 2 digits, when’s the first year when we won’t have any palindromic dates? (For example, in 2030 you can write March as 03). Answers: Wee ones: 321. Little kids: 221
then reads 122, so it’s not a palindrome. But 454 does work! Bonus: Different for everyone…any single digit works, like 7, 8 or 9! Or your next age might be 11, or 22…or 101! Big kids: 2/1/21. Bonus: Just 2/10/21. The sky’s the limit: In 2100. We’ll have palindromic dates in 2022 (2/20/22, 2/21/22…), and in 2023 we can have them in March (3/20/23 through 3/29/23, plus 3/2/23). Then in 2024 we’ll have 4/2/24, 4/20/24, 4/21/24 and so on. That’s true
throughout the ’20s, with dates like 5/20/25, all the way through 9/29/29. In 2030 we start over with 03/1/30, then 1/3/31. This pattern will continue through the ’40s, ’50s, all the way to 9/9/99 in 2099. 2100 is the first year we won’t have a palindromic date, because we can’t have 0/0/00!
Laura Bilodeau Overdeck is founder and president of Bedtime Math Foundation. Her goal is to make math as playful for kids as it was for her when she was a child. Her mom had Laura baking before she could walk, and her dad had her using power tools at a very unsafe age, measuring lengths, widths and angles in the process. Armed with this early love of numbers, Laura went on to get a BA in astrophysics from Princeton University, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business; she continues to star-gaze today. Laura’s other interests include her three lively children, chocolate, extreme vehicles, and Lego Mindstorms. On 22 February 2022, the UK will have its first and only date of 2022 that is both a palindrome and ambigram. But what exactly is a palindrome, and what is an ambigram? And when will the next palindromic dates take place? What is a palindrome?A palindrome comes from the Greek word "palin" which means again and "dromos" which means direction. It is something that reads the same forwards as it does backwards. Words, dates and numbers can be palindromes. For example, the name "Hannah" reads the same when written backwards. Words such as "kayak", "civic" and "radar" are also palindromes as they read the same in reverse. Sometimes, phrases can be a palindrome, such as "do geese see God?" and "was it a car or a cat I saw?" The longest palindromic word in the Oxford English Dictionary is "tattarrattat" coined in the 1922 novel Ulysses by James Joyce to imitate the sound of a knock on the door. What are palindromic dates?Some dates can also be a palindrome. February 22 2022 is a palindromic date as it reads the same forwards as it does backwards 22/2/22. In the US, the date 22 February 2022 is also a palindrome and is written as 2/22/22. It’s a rare occurrence when dates are palindromic in the US and the UK due to the difference in how they’re written. In total, there are several palindromic dates this millennium for the UK, with the first being on 10 February 2001, written as 10/02/2001. The last will be on 29 December 2192, written as 29/12/2192. The next palindromic date will be 3 February 2030, written as 03/02/2030. The next five palindromic dates are:
In the 21st century, the last palindromic date is 29/02/2092 which is significant as it’s not only a palindrome but a leap day too. What is an ambigram?An ambigram is a word or a design that means the same when viewed from a different direction or perspective. The date 22/2/22 arranged in a different perspective, such as vertically or upside down, would also read the same making the day a rare phenomenon. Only 0, 1, 2 and 8 are ambigram numbers. Americans can use January, February, August, October, November, December dates this century and these months used symmetrical digits but their list requires the day to end in 02 get the start of the year. Although very rare, there are several dates that are ambigrams in the UK format, such as:
The word ambigram was coined in 1983 by an American scholar of cognitive science, Douglas Hofstadter. A message from the editor: Thank you for reading. NationalWorld is a new national news brand, produced by a team of journalists, editors, video producers and designers who live and work across the UK. Find out more about who’s who in the team, and our editorial values. We want to start a community among our readers, so please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and keep the conversation going. What date is the next palindrome?The next five palindromic dates are:
13/02/2031. 23/02/2032. 04/02/2040. 14/02/2041.
What date is the next palindrome and ambigram?February 22, 2022 is a palindrome day or a date that can be read the same way backward or forward.
When was last palindrome date?Apparently, it will be Feb 8, 2080 that will be both a palindrome and an ambigram. The last palindromic date that we saw, however, was February 2, 2022 (earlier this month). In 2020, February 2 was also a palindromic date. But, let us point out that such dates are rare every millennium.
What is rare palindrome date?22/2/22 is a rare and special date as it's a palindrome and an ambigram. On 22 February 2022, the UK will have its first and only date of 2022 that is both a palindrome and ambigram.
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