Palindromic datesThis page contains a list of dates that are palindromic in a number of date formats. In each table, the next ten such dates are shown (or less if less exist). More details can be found this blog post. Show 1 palindromic format
2 palindromic formats
3 palindromic formats
4 palindromic formats
5 palindromic formats
6 palindromic formats
7 palindromic formats
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. What date is the next palindrome?The next five palindromic dates are:
13/02/2031. 23/02/2032. 04/02/2040. 14/02/2041.
Are there any palindromes in 2023?The next palindrome date is March 20, 2023, or 3/20/2023.
What date is the next palindrome and ambigram?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. But what exactly is a palindrome, and what is an ambigram?
How often does palindrome day occur?How common are palindrome dates? Aziz S. Inan, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Portland, calculated that in the month-day-year format, palindrome days tend to occur only in the first few centuries of each millennium (1000 years).
|
