11 November 2011

11/11/11

You may have heard that it's 11/11/11. (Or, if you live in the UK, 11/11/11.) When I was growing up, I'd get confused and think that World War II ended on this day, one hundred years ago. You know, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the eleventh year.

The New York Times says that marketers are viewing this as a singular event -- but they went on about this four years, four months, and four days ago.

The Corduroy Appreciation Club says it is Corduroy Appreciation Day.

A bit more mathematically, you can watch a video about the number eleven by James Grime, which appears to be the first of a series of Numberphile videos.

Edited, November 12, 12:29 pm: from the New York Times, a hundred years ago: "To-day it is possible to write the date with the repetition six times of a single digit." The article also points out that a digit will probably never occur again seven times in the date -- we'd have to make it to November 11, 10011 for that to happen.

5 comments:

Tim Dierks said...

I believe the Times was referring to Nov. 11, 2111, just 100 years from now. (The changing of the era is presumably the new millenium.)

Shazbaat said...

7/7/2047 will have 17 ones if you write it in binary!

Shazbaat said...
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Shazbaat said...
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Shazbaat said...

Ok, fourth try. I shouldn't post this late at night. Anyway, I have 7/31/2047 with 19 ones in binary. Am I somehow missing a date with more ones that is likely to happen in anyone's lifetime?