, Columnist
2021 Was a Mess, Unless You Count the Palindrome Days
Whichever way you look at it, the year was mathematically exciting. Even in a mirror.
2,021 was unambiguously greater than 2,020.
Photographer: Noam Galai/Getty Images
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Math fans like me love to find joy in numbers everywhere — and 2021 was a mathematically exciting year however you look at it.
The year was full of palindrome days, whose dates read the same forward and backward (at least in the U.S. date convention). There was a string of them in January — 1/20/21 through 1/29/21, as well as 1/2/21.6 Then we had another run in December, including 12/1/21 through 12/9/21, 12/11/21 and 12/22/21.