Magic numbers

I missed 12.12.12.12.12 the other day, twelve minutes past twelve on the twelfth day of the twelfth month of 2012… but I’m watching out for 20:12.20:12:2012 tonight – twelve minutes past eight in the evening, on the twentieth of the twelfth month 2012. Apparently these are magic numbers… I never knew! I thought Magic Numbers was a band – well, it is but magic numbers are also dates which are repeat numbers, or palindromes. I know in America people put the month first then the day, so I guess their magic numbers would be different.

Apparently, the last thirteen years have been really good for magic numbers, 01.01.01, 02.02.02, 03.03.03 etc, and then there are sequences like 01.02.03, 02.03.04, 03.04.05 etc. We will have to wait a hundred years before this happens again as we only have twelve months in our year – so let’s look forward to 01.01.01 ( 1st January 2101) Palindromes are clever too, the same backwards as forwards – 21.11.12 for example.

As we come to the end of 21012, so the opportunity for magic numbers becomes rarer. There is a really great article on it here, which explains it much more clearly than I can:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/dec/19/why-20-12-2012-special-numbers

I’m off to clock watch to catch 20:12.20:12.2012!