Palindromes

Today’s date in digits is a palindrome, 3-1-13, which simply means the digits 3113 read the same forward or backward (not as cool as the date in a sequence but the next coolest thing, to me). Any series of numbers can be reduced to a palindrome by taking the number (sequence of digits) and subtracting the same digits in reverse sequence. Continue repeating the reverse and subtract process and eventually you will end up with a numerical palindrome (or sequence of numbers that read the same backwards and forwards). I like to do it on this computer’s calculator, the easy way. But here is an example that is easy and only takes a single subtraction, 221. 221-122 (221digits in reverse) = 99 and 99 is a palindrome. Now (if you have time) try it with the year you were born. It takes one side of a piece of notebook paper to get a palindrome from mine (complete with regrouping or as I remember it being called borrowing) using the handwritten method (and human brain vs. the calculator).

Not a math person? Well words can also be palindromes like the name, Hannah or racecar and phrases can also be palindromic, just look on Google. Then there are songs that come very close to being palindromes. The song I heard way too often while traveling with kids is the one about the Hole in the Bucket, Dear Liza where Henry can’t fetch water for obvious reasons and in the end cannot repair the hole in the bucket because he cannot fetch water in it too. Cat’s in the Cradle is another song that tells a story that comes full circle.

Here are a couple of palindromes as my final words in this post…

Sex at noon taxes…So, Ida, adios!