Palindromic Numbers

Today is a palindrome.

Look at today’s date: 31 1 13

Its the same forward as it is backwards.

There’s quite a nice little investigation you can do with numbers:

Take any 3 digit number – say 567. Reverse the digits -> 765 and add them together.  Is the answer “interesting”? (In this case “interesting” means palindromic – the same forward as it is backwards.)

If not, take the answer, reverse the digits, add the two numbers together, and see what happens.

Will it work for all 3 digit numbers? What about 2 digit or 4 digit numbers?

At one level, this is a great little investigation to practise addition, but it can prompt so many other questions like those above, and more, like when is the next palindromic date? How many can we look forward to this year? What about next year? As ever, we seem to end up asking more questions than we answer, but isn’t that what makes maths so much fun?

Enjoy the day and have a play with some palindromic dates and numbers.