Today is Thursday, December 2, 2021 — and when displayed digitally, it is not only a palindrome in which it could be read the same front to back and back to front; but it is also an ambigram, which can be read the same upside down as right side up when the slash marks or dashes are removed from the digital date.
Fun With Calendars: December 2 2021 Is Both a Palindrome and an Ambigram
Furthermore, the palindrome is eight digits long and is one of only a dozen times which will occur in this century, as March 2, 2030 is the next date with a palindrome of eight digits: 03022030.
Posted as a message on Twitter by Tyler Roney — who is a meteorologist in Sioux Falls in South Dakota — is an example of how December 2, 2021 can be read digitally as illustrated by a graphic
🚨 Nerd Alert 🚨
Today’s date is not only a palindrome (the same front to back) but it’s also an ambigram which means it’s the same upside down as well! pic.twitter.com/f3IuAV2boR
— Tyler Roney (@TylerJRoney) December 2, 2021
However, this unique palindrome actually occurred earlier this year in countries outside of the United States, as the day is placed first in the order instead of the month: 12022021 is December 2, 2021 in the United States; but 12022021 is February 12, 2021 outside of the United States.
Of course, you already know that as a frequent traveler.
“The year 2021 offers us a string of palindrome dates. Dr. Aziz Inan, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Portland, Oregon, has been studying palindrome dates for more than a decade, and says 2021 is special because it contains a total of 22 palindrome dates”, according to this article which was written by the staff of the Farmer’s Almanac. “Wednesday, January 20, 2021, marked the beginning of a 10-day palindrome stretch. For 10 consecutive days, we had five-digit palindrome dates, which are common usage in the US.”
Additional examples of instances of palindromic dates are included in the aforementioned article.
Final Boarding Call
I attempted to write this entire article as a palindrome — but even if I succeeded, I am not sure it would have been obvious…
…but do not fret: click here if you want to find out what is the longest unique palindromic sentence of 20,012 words, which eclipsed this palindromic gem of 17,826 words.
You can also find out the milestone milepost palindromic post counts of FlyerTalk members in this discussion.
I can only end this article with one word:
Wow.
Photograph ©2016 by Brian Cohen.
