20-10-2010 - Date Amazing Mathematical Facts and Interesting Numerical Trivia

Is there anything peculiar with the date 20-10-2010? KK Thomas, a former general manager of Aluminum Services, in Bahrain, has discovered an interesting numerical trivia of the date 20-10-2010 which falls on Wednesday.

He told Express here on Tuesday that 20-10-2010 is a unique date which has eight digits with the first half (20-10) representing the day and month and the second half (2010), the year. He said that the similar nature of the date occurred 98 years ago in 20th century on 19-12-1912.


According to Thomas, the peculiar pattern of the eight-digit dates began from 11th century and would occur thrice in every century up to 31st century, on the 10th, 11th and 12th year during October, November and December respectively. He pointed out some dates to establish his theory, 20-11-2011 and 20-12-2012 in this century.

It would be 21-10-2110, 21-11-2111 and 21-12-2112 in next century. This will be repeated till the 31st century.

In the 32nd century, the pattern would occur only twice, in October (31-10-3110) and December (31-12-3112). As November has only 30 days, 31-11-3111 does not exist, he added.

He said that the phenomenon occurred 1,000 years ago for the first time on 10-10-1010, with 20-10-2010 (Wednesday) being the 31st of the series. The last occurrence of the similar date, the 65th repetition, would fall on 31-12-3112. Interestingly the fanciest of all eight-digit dates, having only 1, was the fifth occurrence with the date as 11-11-1111.

K K Thomas has won a place in Limca Book of Records for his  talents in mathematics. He is an expert in finding the square roots and cubic roots of ten-digit numbers in a few seconds without using a calculator, pen or paper.