Some people like to look at numerical dates and extract properties from them. This is a harmless piece of fun, as long as one doesn’t try to interpret these arbitrary numerical properties as having some influence on real life. No-one minds American math students deciding to call 3/14 (14th March) “pi day”, or noting that it would have been especially apt in 1592, but anyone who sees significance in that being exactly 100 years after Columbus “sailed the ocean blue” invites the label “nutter”.
Dates like 9/9/99 or 11/11 are bound to attract attention, so today’s date 2/2/22 is undoubtedly up there with the best of them. Such dates of course occur 9 times per century, or about once every 4000 days. Five copies of the same digit will occur on 22/2/22 (European style) or 2/22/22 (American style), and already occurred on 11/1/11 and 1/11/11, but will not occur again this century, while six copies occur only once per century, on 11/11/11.
But what if we write today’s date out in full, as 02/02/2022? Perhaps not as satisfying, then, as 02/02/2020. But what about 22/02/2022, which only works in European style? Surely the most significant date in the entire 21st century?! I hope you are making suitable plans to celebrate it – I know I am. You won’t see anything like it again before 11/12/2111.
February 2, 2022 at 1:52 pm |
Maybe in 200 years time, people will celebrate 22/2/2222 as the most significant date in the entire third millennium.
February 2, 2022 at 2:08 pm |
Why do you say 11/12/2111 and not 10/12/2101? It 10 years sooner…
February 2, 2022 at 2:48 pm |
Yes, but it uses three distinct digits rather than only two.
February 2, 2022 at 4:57 pm |
…although I can’t help feeling there’s something a bit special about 29/02/2092.
February 2, 2022 at 3:45 pm |
Extra points for anyone who gets their comment stamped with a time expressible with only the digits 0 and 2…
February 2, 2022 at 5:21 pm |
I was really close… 2:08. But today, it’s not possible anymore and tomorrow will be no fun as there will also be a 3 in there… So a missed opportunity…
P.S. I rather prefer 22/01/2201…
February 2, 2022 at 5:38 pm
How about 22/02/2202? As for the time stamp, I think we can allow the 24-hour clock, so there’s nearly five hours before 22:22, although 20:22 would have more of a ring to it.
February 2, 2022 at 6:12 pm
Yeah… but 22/02 is not my birthday… so there you go!
Regarding the hour, it seems that WordPress doesn’t like the 24h format….so at most it would be 8:00, or 8:02, 8:20, 8:22, 10:00, 10:02, 10:20 and finally 10:22, all PM. But those don’t look interesting.
February 2, 2022 at 8:31 pm |
I just submitted my paper on “Quaternionic reflections and (non)locality” to a journal, two minutes late, so it got the time-stamp 02/02/2022,20:24. So close!
February 4, 2022 at 12:42 pm |
Next chances – 20/02/2022 or 22/02/2022