Tomorrow Only! 01-02-03-04-05-06!

FSTargetDrone · Post by **FSTargetDrone** » 2006-04-04 12:09pm

Posted on Tue, Apr. 04, 2006

An alignment of the cosmos - or not

A rare moment in time: 01-02-03-04-05-06.

By Jacqueline L. Urgo

Inquirer Staff Writer

At 1:02 a.m. - plus exactly three seconds - tomorrow, in the fourth month of the year, on the fifth day of that month in the sixth year of the decade, an event that may be simultaneously spectacular and randomly mundane will occur.

At that moment, in the linear human concept we call time, the numbers 01-02-03-04-05-06 will align in perfect sequence.

And depending on whether you are pathologically superstitious or logically mathematical, this once-in-a-lifetime moment means something.

Or nothing.

"It doesn't mean anything," said John Allen Paulos, a Temple University mathematician who has written a number of books about numbers.

The math brain behind bestsellers such as Innumeracy and A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market has concluded that 010203040506 will be just another point in the time-and-space continuum. There isn't even a name for such an occasion.

"It is an interesting sequence, but if you keep track of anything - dates, times, whatever - ultimately you're going to come upon with such a pattern of numbers," said Paulos, who wrote about the New York State Lottery's drawing of 9-1-1 exactly one year after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He concluded that the probability of that happening on that date was one in a thousand - a small but not minuscule chance.

And while the New Jersey Lottery hasn't reported a spike in Pick 6 ticket sales, nor are any Atlantic City casinos gearing up for an onslaught of gamblers around 1 a.m. tomorrow, some believe 010203040506 is a particularly lucky chronology.

"It's a very significant sequence because it means that things will begin to make more sense for people, be more in order, especially for people struggling in business," asserted Brigantine, N.J., clairvoyant Cathy Roller, who said she had for years worked with the FBI and state and local police to help solve crimes.

"Numbers always have a lot to do with luck, and when numbers line up like this, it means immediate new changes and good luck for people who have recently come through a very rocky time like we've been having in the U.S."

Which could explain why Roller sees good things happening specifically for the United States: Paulos pointed out that Europe and much of the rest of the world record the day first, followed by the month.

"Which would mean they won't experience this same alignment until the fourth of May 2006," he said. "Whatever that means."

Dooey Jo · Post by **Dooey Jo** » 2006-04-04 12:50pm

This is good. If the world ends tomorrow, it will give us Europeans the heads-up, so that we can cancel May 4th this year.

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2006-04-04 12:57pm

The choice of the zero-point of the year 0 AD is completely arbitrary, as is the choice of 1st January. The choice of 12 midnight is a bit less so, but nevertheless we could equally have chosen 12 noon as 0000 hours.

FSTargetDrone · Post by **FSTargetDrone** » 2006-04-04 01:53pm

I use the day, month, year notation instead of month, day, year. Just makes more sense.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2006-04-04 02:13pm

Fascinating how human concepts translate to deep physical conditions of the universe.

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2006-04-04 02:28pm

FSTargetDrone wrote:I use the day, month, year notation instead of month, day, year. Just makes more sense.

Yes, the usual American convention makes absolutely no sense. The Chinese convention is year, month, day which at least is in descending order.

Interestingly, I was in Boston last week and I saw a couple of old cemeteries along the Freedom Trail. Even the 17th century gravestones carried dates in month-day-year format, so I wonder when the divergence in custom appeared. In the 17th century, I would have thought that British customs would still be practised.

FSTargetDrone · Post by **FSTargetDrone** » 2006-04-04 03:05pm

kheegan wrote:
FSTargetDrone wrote:I use the day, month, year notation instead of month, day, year. Just makes more sense.
Yes, the usual American convention makes absolutely no sense. The Chinese convention is year, month, day which at least is in descending order.

I have that day, month, year arrangement on my computers, and I also use 24-hour time on the computer clocks, as well as my watch.

Very interesting about the tombstones you saw. I would have somewhat expected a change after the revolutionary period--"We aren't using the British way, we'll put the MONTH first" (or some such).

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2006-04-04 03:18pm

Trust the ISO date notification.

The 01-02-03-05-04-06 means nothing to the rest of the world.

In some hundreds of years I might give damn

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2006-04-05 05:07pm

FSTargetDrone wrote:Very interesting about the tombstones you saw. I would have somewhat expected a change after the revolutionary period--"We aren't using the British way, we'll put the MONTH first" (or some such).

Or it's just the way dates were done in English then. It makes perfect sense when you consider that it's how dates are verbally stated (at least in American English). April 5, 2006. 4/5/06.

Shogoki · Post by **Shogoki** » 2006-04-05 05:31pm

The way the days are stated are also nonsense, I would rather it be the 5th of April, than April the 5th, which, if you get anal, implies April it's the 5th element in some sequence.

Pezzoni · Post by **Pezzoni** » 2006-04-05 05:48pm

Is this GMT? Is BST taken into account?

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2006-04-05 05:51pm

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!

Post by **Surlethe** » 2006-04-05 06:14pm

Big whoop. I'm more looking forward to 01-01-02-03-05-08-13 and 02-03-05-07-11-13.

Davis 51 · Post by **Davis 51** » 2006-04-05 07:35pm

Shogoki wrote:The way the days are stated are also nonsense, I would rather it be the 5th of April, than April the 5th, which, if you get anal, implies April it's the 5th element in some sequence.

[immature]*snicker* hehe. You said anal. *snicker* [/immature]

Surlethe wrote:Big whoop. I'm more looking forward to 01-01-02-03-05-08-13 and 02-03-05-07-11-13.

Really, I'm more looking forward to 06-06-06-06-06-06.

Honestly, this is all just some piece of trivia and a conversation starter, good for approximately one day. Though it was brought up at least once in all four of my classes today.

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2006-04-06 06:40am

StarshipTitanic wrote:
Or it's just the way dates were done in English then. It makes perfect sense when you consider that it's how dates are verbally stated (at least in American English). April 5, 2006. 4/5/06.

In spoken English anywhere else in the world apart from the US, we would say 'the 5th of April'. And I seriously doubt that the English format back then was different; for example the rallying call after Guy Fawkes' 1605 gunpowder plot was 'Remember, remember the fifth of November!'.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-04-06 07:13am

Surlethe wrote:Big whoop. I'm more looking forward to 01-01-02-03-05-08-13 and 02-03-05-07-11-13.

Same, actual formula dates are better then just series of numbers.

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2006-04-07 04:28pm

kheegan wrote:
StarshipTitanic wrote:
Or it's just the way dates were done in English then. It makes perfect sense when you consider that it's how dates are verbally stated (at least in American English). April 5, 2006. 4/5/06.
In spoken English anywhere else in the world apart from the US, we would say 'the 5th of April'. And I seriously doubt that the English format back then was different; for example the rallying call after Guy Fawkes' 1605 gunpowder plot was 'Remember, remember the fifth of November!'.

According to Wikipedia, England switched the format twice, with a period of mm/dd/yyyy in between using dd/mm/yyyy. Citing a short poem isn't the best indicator of how people speak, unless the English only spoke in iambic pentameter during the late 1500s.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2006-04-07 08:47pm

kheegan wrote:
StarshipTitanic wrote:
Or it's just the way dates were done in English then. It makes perfect sense when you consider that it's how dates are verbally stated (at least in American English). April 5, 2006. 4/5/06.
In spoken English anywhere else in the world apart from the US, we would say 'the 5th of April'. And I seriously doubt that the English format back then was different; for example the rallying call after Guy Fawkes' 1605 gunpowder plot was 'Remember, remember the fifth of November!'.

And they couldn't possibly have written it that way because it rhymed, could they? Even if they did say it day/month/year then, a one-line poem isn't proof.

It makes no sense that British settlers of North America would switch calendar formats for no good reason. It makes much more sense that Britian would switch after American independence, and America wouldn't because 1) America was culturally isolated after 1783, and 2) for about 100 years after independence, Americans in general loathed the British and everything for which they stood.

FSTargetDrone · Post by **FSTargetDrone** » 2006-04-07 10:30pm

RedImperator wrote:It makes no sense that British settlers of North America would switch calendar formats for no good reason. It makes much more sense that Britian would switch after American independence, and America wouldn't because 1) America was culturally isolated after 1783, and 2) for about 100 years after independence, Americans in general loathed the British and everything for which they stood.

This also brings to mind the various spelling variations (color/colour, etc.), and when/why they evolved.

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2006-04-08 08:09am

StarshipTitanic wrote: According to Wikipedia, England switched the format twice, with a period of mm/dd/yyyy in between using dd/mm/yyyy. Citing a short poem isn't the best indicator of how people speak, unless the English only spoke in iambic pentameter during the late 1500s.

Interesting...according to the Wiki article, the switch back to dd/mm/yyyy was made around 1900. I'll take a look at some Dickens to see if I can find any dates mentioned in them.

This also brings to mind the various spelling variations (color/colour, etc.), and when/why they evolved.

In general, the British version retains the original spelling from whatever languaged it was purloined from (e.g. 'programme' from French), while the American version has been simplified. Having said that, there are some systematic differences as well, e.g. 'analyse' vs 'analyze'.

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2006-04-08 04:45pm

This is a quote from Dickens' Pickwick Papers

Now George Nupkins, Esquire, the principal magistrate
aforesaid, was as grand a personage as the fastest walker would
find out, between sunrise and sunset, on the twenty-first of June,
which being, according to the almanacs, the longest day in the
whole year, would naturally afford him the longest period for his
search. On this particular morning, Mr. Nupkins was in a state
of the utmost excitement and irritation, for there had been a
rebellion in the town; all the day-scholars at the largest day-
school had conspired to break the windows of an obnoxious
apple-seller, and had hooted the beadle and pelted the
constabulary--an elderly gentleman in top-boots, who had been
called out to repress the tumult, and who had been a peace-
officer, man and boy, for half a century at least.

Dickens published this in 1836.