Happy Palindrome Week: Why 10-day period so special

Was it a car or a cat I saw?

That’s a palindrome sentence – which means that it reads the same backwards and forwards.

Palindromes are everywhere – the words ‘kayak’ and ‘racecar’ are palindromes, and so are the sentences ‘Some men interpret nine memos’, and ‘Never odd or even’.

Even numbers and dates can be palindromes. Take today’s date – in the m-dd-yy format, today is 6-19-16, and that can be read the same backwards too.

In fact, including today, the last 10 days have all been palindromes in the m-dd-yy format. Staring Friday, June 10, 2016 (read 6-10-16), it has been a sequence of 10 palindromic dates until 6-19-16, or Sunday, June 19, 2016.

Sequential palindromic dates of the m-dd-yy variety aren’t that rare actually. This century (every century, actually), there were 10 palindromic dates in January 2011 (starting 1-10-11 until 1-19-11), the same in February 2012 (from 2-10-12 until 2-19-12), and so forth.

Next year, it will happen in the month of July (from 7-10-17 until 7-19-17) and then August 2018 followed by September 2019.

As long as you follow the m-dd-yy format, every century will have nine years in the second decade with 10 palindrome days in a row. This century, it’s every year between 2011-2019, the next century will see them in the years between 2111-2119, and then 2211-2219 will have 10 consecutive Palindrome Days.

A five-digit palindrome isn’t as rare as, say a seven-digit date palindrome (1-10-2011) or an eight-digit date one (01-02-2010). Only 38 such dates occur in the 21st century (26 seven-digit palindrome dates and 12 eight-digit palindrome dates).

The last seven-digit palindrome date was 6-10-2016 (June 10, 2016 in the m-dd-yyyy format). By the way, the same date will repeat in the d-mm-yyyy format later this year on October 6, 2016.

The last eight-digit palindrome date was November 2, 2011 in the mm-dd-yyyy format, which read 11-02-2011. The next one will be on February 2, 2010, and will read 02-02-2020.

Names can be palindromes too – Ava, Hannah, Anna, Ana, Elle, Izzi, Bob, Nitin… even Habibah.

Allow me, however to conclude with this palindromic paragraph:

Dennis, Nell, Edna, Leon, Nedra, Anita, Rolf, Nora, Alice, Carol, Leo, Jane, Reed, Dena, Dale, Basil, Rae, Penny, Lana, Dave, Denny, Lena, Ida, Bernadette, Ben, Ray, Lila, Nina, Jo, Ira, Mara, Sara, Mario, Jan, Ina, Lily, Arne, Bette, Dan, Reba, Diane, Lynn, Ed, Eva, Dana, Lynne, Pearl, Isabel, Ada, Ned, Dee, Rena, Joel, Lora, Cecil, Aaron, Flora, Tina, Arden, Noel, and Ellen sinned.

Hah Hah.