Something Cool Happens When You Reverse the Numbers in Every Date From Now Until May 19

Today is 5/11/15. Tomorrow is 5/12/15. Wednesday is 5/13/15. Notice anything special about these dates?

The dates for several days this month are palindromes. (Photo credit: Shutterstock)

Fun fact pointed out by Mashable: If you reverse the numerical dates for the next week and a half, from now until May 19, they are palindromes.

Check it out:

5/11/15

5/12/15

5/13/15

5/14/15

5/15/15

5/16/15

5/17/15

5/18/15

5/19/15

A palindrome is a word, phrase, or, in this case, a number, that is read the same forward and backward.

Today, 5/11/15, for example, is exactly the same if you read it backward — it's all 5-1-1-1-5.

According to Time and Date, which also noted this special sequence where the dates are palindromic, such occurrences are "rare."

"Depending on date formats, palindromic dates tend to be rare. Aziz S. Inan, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Portland, Portland, U.S.A. has calculated that in the mm-dd-yyyy format, Palindrome Days tend to occur only in the first few centuries of each millennium (1000 years)," Time and Date stated. "The last palindromic date in the second millennium (years 1001 to 2000) in this format was August 31, 1380 or 08-31-1380."

"The first Palindrome Day in the current millennium was October 2, 2001 (10-02-2001) and the last will be September 2, 2090 (09-02-2090). In total there will be 12 Palindrome Days in the 21st century if you write your date in the mm-dd-yyyy format," according to Time and Date.

—

Front page image via Shutterstock.