123456

by JoAnne

A noteworthy event for folks interested in numerology, or just plain odd things, occured in the U.S. last night. At 1:02 AM and three seconds on April 5, 2006, the time and date on digital clocks read 01-02-03-04-05-06. Cool, huh. Happens once a century. The world’s atomic clock timekeepers got all excited. I must confess that I slept through it nonetheless. The rest of the world, which uses the day/month/year format, can enjoy the event on the 4th of May.

You can check out the USNO master clock here – home of the Official source of time for the U.S. Department of Defense.

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April 5th, 2006 11:32 AM
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14 Responses to “123456”

  1. 1.   Tony Bannard-Smith Says:

    Dear Fellow Churchillian Mark,

    I like the number sequence for today – 01 02 03 etc. Very original and rare.

    Doesn’t quite work this side of the pond though, where we are more used to DD/MM/YY sequence at the end!

    Comment edited to delete request for phone number and transfer of funds. – JoAnne

    Best wishes
    Tony
    Development Director
    Churchill College
    Cambridge

  2. 2.   Philip Says:

    Local (San Diego) news programs have been running this story, claiming that 01/02/03/04/05/06 is a one-time-only event. They’re saying it’ll never happen again. Ever.

    Of course, it happens every century.

  3. 3.   Rien Says:

    But then again, if you follow the ISO format for dates this already happened on May 6th, 2004 :)

  4. 4.   Lubos Motl Says:

    In Europe, it will happen again next month, on May 4th (4.5.6).

    In three years, we will also have 12:34:56, 7/8/9. A precise combination of time and date occurs once per history, but the number of equally interesting combinations of time and date occur extremely often.

  5. 5.   Alun Clewe Says:

    Dagnabbit. As unimportant as I realize it actually is, I usually like to do something about occasions like this, but it didn’t even occur to me that this one was coming. Oh, well. At least I have the European version to look forward to next month, I guess.

    As for 12:34:56 7/8/9…it would be better if it was 12:34:56 7/8/90. But we’ve got another nine decades and change before we get that one again…

  6. 6.   Lubos Motl Says:

    In five years, we will also experience 11:11:11 11/11/11 which looks visually more attractive, I think.

  7. 7.   Alun Clewe Says:

    But we’ve got another nine decades and change before we get that one again…

    Er…eight decades and change, that is. Should have been pretty obvious that 90 - 6 

  8. 8.   Alun Clewe Says:

    Whoops! The end of my reply got cut off because I used a less-than sign instead of actually typing in "<". (Oddly enough, though, it looked OK in the preview.) Anyway, here’s the full reply I meant to post:

    But we’ve got another nine decades and change before we get that one again…

    Er…eight decades and change, that is. Should have been pretty obvious that 90 - 6 < 90, but I’m apparently not thinking straight today.

    But yeah, 11:11:11 11/11/11 is a good one too, and one that’s coming up much sooner.

  9. 9.   ChuckleZ Says:

    Sixteen years ago I was taking a driving lesson when the instructor asked me to pull over, she told me to turn the engine off and look at the clock.

    It was the 12:34pm and 56 seconds on the 7th August, 1990… or 12:34.56 7/8/90… Once a century.

    I was in a beige Mini Metro, near Skelmersdale in Lancashire, since you ask.

  10. 10.   Clifford Says:

    Yeah! Good ol’ Skelmersdale….. Been a while since I’ve been there.

    -cvj

  11. 11.   Mark Says:

    Ah Skem – almost as many Scousers as Liverpool itself (not that there’s anything wrong with that). My grandparents lived there when I was growing up.

  12. 12.   scouser Says:

    Skelmersdale: Clifford? Mark? I was there when, as far as I can recall, I was growing up. It is, as they say, a small world. Not that I caught sight of any obviously putative string theorists or comologists. How blind can one be?

  13. 13.   Philip Says:

    At 1:02 I was celebrating my birthday! It was a GREAT birthday! I think the science of numbers helped my birthday! Though this sequence may only happen once in a 100 year while, my BIRTHDAY happens every year!

  14. 14.   adam Says:

    Nothing wrong with scousers, Mark?

    You’ve been here too long and have clearly confused Liverpool, NY, with Liverpool, England.