11/02/2011 -- The Great Palindrome

By Michael J.W. Stickings

In case you weren't aware, and not many were, yesterday was a hugely significant day... for palindrome enthusiasts:

Today might not seem any more special than yesterday or the day before, but it is a once-in-10,000-years event. Nov. 2, 2011, written out numerically, is 11/02/2011, which on its own makes it a very rare eight-digit palindrome date, meaning that it can be read the same way frontward and backward.

But, as one scientist has found, there's much more to this date that makes it truly one of a kind.

This century features a relative wealth of eight-digit palindrome dates; today is the third date so far, and there will be nine more. In fact, we live in a relative golden age of palindrome dates: Before 10/02/2001, the last eight-digit palindrome date was Aug. 31, 1380 (08/31/1380).

"Eight-digit palindrome dates are very rare, and are clustered in the first three or so centuries at the beginning of a millennial, and then don't show up for 600 to 700 years, until they appear as a cluster in the next millennium," said Aziz Inan, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Portland who crunches palindrome dates in his spare time.

Wait... there's more:

"If you look at the date as a number, 11022011, it has very special properties," Inan explained. "It is the product of 7 squared times 11 cubed times 13 squared. That is impressive because those are three consecutive prime numbers. No other palindrome date, up to A.D. 10,000, is like that.

"Not only that, if you write it out as 72 x 113 x 132, you'll notice that even the superscript power numbers – 232 – are a palindrome."

I don't mean to come across as sarcastic. This is actually quite interesting -- from a purely mathematical perspective.

Although, what if you write it 11/2/11? That's a palindrome, but not nearly as rare. (Hey, today's 11/3/11!)

Or what if you write it 11/2/2001, which isn't a palindrome?

Or if you write it the British (and often Canadian) way: 02.11.2011. Now that's not interesting at all. (Or am I missing something?)

Anyway, just thought I'd mention it.