In the world of recreational mathematics—a crowd I am decidedly not a member of—a strobogrammatic year is one that remains identical when rotated 180 degrees. I know this despite having no business being in the “mathlete” circle. I’m so far removed from the math world that for years I thought Avogadro’s Number was just the secret ingredient in a really expensive batch of guacamole. (It turns out it’s 602,200,000,000,000,000,000,000, which is roughly the number of times I’ve had to explain to a cashier how to make change without the computer telling them what to do.)
But as it turns out, I’m a member of an elite mathematical club whether I like it or not. Boomers (and our elders) are the only people alive on earth today who have experienced a strobogrammatic year.
I was fourteen years old when the world last flipped: 1961. I remember 1961 because my brother graduated from high school that year. When he got his class ring, it had “19” on one side of the stone and “61” on the other. In an era where we had an “etiquette” for everything—how to tie a tie, which fork to use for salad—that ring was a rebel.
It was a big deal that he could wear it any way he wanted without having to think about it. It was the only part of 1961 that didn’t come with a manual on proper decorum. Upside down or right-side up, it always read the same.
To pull off this trick and be in the Exclusive Digit Club, you need digits that cooperate. In the world of “pure” symmetry, you only get five players: 0, 1, 8, 6, and 9.
The Singles: 0, 1, 8
The Doubles: 11, 88
The Big Leagues (4-digits): 1001, 1111, 1691, 1881, and our crowning glory, 1961.
We are currently in a very long, very messy 4,000-year “dry spell.” Because the number 2 is a stubborn, jagged little digit that refuses to look like anything else when rotated, there are no strobogrammatic years in the 2000s. The kids today are living through a millennium that is, mathematically speaking, visually illiterate. They’re stuck in a world that only makes sense if you keep your feet on the floor.
Unless medical science makes some terrifyingly successful leaps, none of the “disruptors” alive today will see the next flip. We won’t see another symmetric year until 6009. After that, things finally start looking organized again. We’re not just old; we’re mathematically balanced.
Mark Van Patten used to write a blog called Going Like Sixty and has been married to the same woman since 1968. Now he’s a songwriter…kind of…sort of. See what he’s creating at GitmoJams.com
