Sourav's Diary: What is Palindrome Day?

Saturday, January 2, 2010

What is Palindrome Day?

Few minutes ago I saw the above tweet from Bivas and I wondered What is Palindrome Day??? Did some google search and found that

The Date which can be read as a mirror image

And what makes today (01-02-2010 in mm-dd-yyyy format) more special is, for just the second time in more than six centuries the date can be read as a mirror image.

In month-day-year format (MM-DD-YYYY), it can be written as 01-02-2010, which is the numerical version of a palindrome. That’s a word (rotator) or phrase (Madam, I’m Adam) that reads the same backward and forward.

The last time this happened was Oct. 2, 2001 — or 10-02-2001 — said Aziz Inan, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Portland.

And before that? You have to go back a bit.

“The amazing thing is, the one before that was Aug. 31, 1380 or 08-31-1380,” said Inan, a math puzzle enthusiast. “That was 620 years ago.”

Our next one — the third of 12 palindrome dates in the 21st century — will pop up Nov. 2, 2011 or 11-02-2011.

See what tweeps are talking about "Palindrome Day"