Sequences for Numbers Nerds

Sunday morning at three minutes and four seconds after 2 a.m., it will be exactly 02:03:04 05/06/07. And if you find that so astounding that you won’t be able to sleep until you’ve experienced this once-in-a-century sequence, you are, in case you didn’t know … a nerd.A numbers nerd, that is. No shame in that — I’m one, too. (Hey: one, too. Cool numbers are everywhere.) Folks like us find it hard not to shout, “Look! It’s 12:34!” Even 2:34 is sweet, as are 1:23, 3:45, and of course 4:56. And when it’s 11:11 — well, it just doesn’t get much better than that.“I love 11:11, too,” the spokesman for the American Mathematical Society, Mike Breen, said. “You can turn your clock upside down.” And you can do it again at nine minutes after six (and six after nine).The thrill of Sunday’s time-date drama is felt keenly by people like Mr. Breen, who also appreciates the numbers on license plates. “I might look at the last three digits and see if it’s prime,” he said. “Or if the digits are a perfect square.” Fun!The other folks tingling with anticipation seem to be those with fond memories of numerical alignments past.Publicist Nancy Lovell was in the college student council office nearly three decades ago when her friend suddenly yelled from the office next door, “Lovell, come in here!”“I went in and the clock said it was 12:34,” Ms. Lovell said. As the date was May 5, 1978, that made the time exactly 12:34 5/6/78.“We both kind of stood and said, ‘Huh.'”Unfortunately, “Huh,” seems to be the standard response one gets when one points out a numerical sequence, no matter how cool. Children appreciate these occurrences a little more (emphasis on “little”), but with adults, the conversation just grinds to a halt.And yet, people do feel the pull of special numbers, even if they don’t readily admit it. How else to explain the rash of weddings planned for 07/07/07?“All of us in this business have seen an extreme interest in the date,” wedding planner Jennifer Brisman of Jennifer Brisman Weddings said. When celebrities Eva Longoria and Tony Parker announced their plans to wed on that date, the lucky seven sequence soared into national consciousness.“Every bride had to ask about it,” Ms. Brisman said. In fact, the date is so popular that florists and caterers are having a hard time meeting the demand.By contrast, last year’s 06/06/06 was a date some assumed would usher in the end of the world.It didn’t.Even those who scorn such superstition are not above a little fun with dates. Math clubs around the country celebrate “Pi Day” on March 13, which happens to be 3/14 — the first three digits of the numerical value of pi.“There’s a pie eating contest where you have, of course, 3 minutes and 14 seconds to eat pie using only your hands,” the faculty sponsor of the Harvard Math Club, professor Noam Elkies, said.Mr. Elkies said he has heard of chemists who celebrate October 23 as something called “mole” day — because 10 to the 23rd power is important (somehow), in chemistry (and it’s called mole). And in Europe, where the day is written before the month, January 27 marks “e Day” celebrating the e number 2.71, which is (sorry, I couldn’t understand a thing he said about this) significant, too.That European way of writing the date, by the way, means that 2:03:04 05/06/07 won’t happen until June 5 over there, so if you’re planning an overseas vacation, you could get to celebrate it twice. I hope you appreciate that!But probably … you don’t.

Sequences for Numbers Nerds

Sequences for Numbers Nerds

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