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Happy Odd Day!

Posted by sengan on Fri Nov 19, 1999 12:26 PM
from the things-you-never-knew dept.
It's funny. Laugh.
From a mailing-list "Today is November 19th, 1999. The numerical format for today is 19-11-1999. All of the digits are odd. The next Odd day will be 1-1-3111 - which is well over a thousand years away, which we will never see. Days such as 13-4-89 have both even and odd digits, thus, it is neither odd nor even. The next even day will be 2-2-2000 - the first one since 28-8-888. So, now you have a reason to celebrate this Friday as it'll be your last odd day on Earth!!!!!!" So Slashdot wishes you a nice odd day!
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  • I don't know about you... (Score:4)

    by vlax (1809) on Friday November 19 1999, @07:37AM (#1518461)
    ...but I expect to live to see 1-1-3111. :^)

    As Woody Allen said, some people try to achieve immortality through their work, others through their children. I hope to achieve immortality by not dying.
  • True that! It confuses the crap out of my teachers when I put the date for the jewish calendar on my papers...

  • Re:This is most Odd. :) (Score:3)

    by kip3f (1210) on Friday November 19 1999, @07:57AM (#1518476) Homepage
    This is easier:
    bash$ factor 1999
    1999: 1999
    --
    Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.

  • remember when? (Score:3)

    by cetan (61150) <cetan_post@yahoo.com> on Friday November 19 1999, @07:59AM (#1518483) Journal

    Does anyone remember were they were at

    12:34:56 on 7/8/90 ? (following American date "standard, July 8th).

    A perfect sequeance of numbers :)

    or, for others. August 7th.

    That won't happen for a few years.

  • "They refuse to listen"? How odd. All it takes is a simple demonstration of Cantor's diagonalization approach, and there you have it.
  • However, all of number theory relies on the fact that 1 is not prime. The Fundamental Theory of Arithmetic (that every number has a unique prime factorization) would fall flat on its face if you could stick in as many 1's as you wanted.
    --

  • Actually, I think we will.

    I mean consider all the wonderful things coming out of medicine lately to serve our immortality. We have head-transplants for when your body gets old (I know they can't reconnect the nerves yet, but they are making great progress towards that with handicapped people like Reeves), we have human-cloning so that we can make headless versions of ourselfs (they have isolated the gene which makes a body grow a head), they have medicines that show signs towards stimulating regrowth of brain-cells so we don't end up braindead after a few hundred years, and truely effective cancer treetments are just around the corner.

    Who says we need to die just because everyone else did?

    -
    We cannot reason ourselves out of our basic irrationality. All we can do is learn the art of being irrational in a reasonable way.

  • Re:This is most Odd. :) (Score:4)

    by EricWright (16803) on Friday November 19 1999, @08:02AM (#1518506)
    Cool, so as another poster mentioned, 11:59:59 19/11/1999 is the last odd timestamp of our lifetimes. It's also an entirely prime timestamp!

    That will be one primo second to be alive!

    Eric
  • Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the last prime number day was 7/31/1999 and the next one is 1/1/2003.

    Party on!

  • Although, this isn't terribly fascinating, seeing as how 11-19-1997 was all odd, too.

    And last Wednesday, and last Monday. And the Saturday before that. And the Thursday before that. And Tuesday before that. Then the previous Sunday. And that Friday, Wednesday and Monday.

    Woo. I'm underwhelmed.
  • Last time I checked, 1,1,2001 is odd...

    The formula for odd numbers is 2*(n+.5)

    N for 2001 = 100
    N for 1 = 0

    It may be the last one of the millenium, but not the last we will be alive to see. (At least I hope so!)


    This kind of story brings out the people who don't bother to read before they post. 2001 contains 3 even digits, 2, 0, and 0. the requirements state that all digits must be odd.

    Kintanon
  • All Real numbers are not Integers, but all Integers are Real.
    While we're being pedantic, this should read "Not all Real numbers are Integers," or better, "Not all real numbers are integers." The way you phrased it seems to say that none of the real numbers are also integers, which is the opposite of your point.

    "All people are not dead" is very different from "Not all people are dead."

    Sorry, but with all this fine logical niggling going on, I couldn't help myself.
  • I don't recall the exact definition, but I believe 1 isn't prime.
  • I intend to live forever. So far, so good.
  • This is just result of the common decimal notation. If we use hexadecimal notation, then all of this changes.

    Personally, I find all these people talking about the new millenium in 2000 to be complete idiots. The new millenium doesn't start until the end of 2048.
  • I realy like a sig. I like that one. And you know what? I'd bet it is...
  • Yeah, but the leap month is simply referred to as "Adar II"

    (as opposed to "Adar, the month", or "Adar II: The Wrath of Haman", or "Adar-3D, the search for forced humor" :-)
  • It said odd numbers though... I don't quite get that... that would be silly since 21/11/1999 (november 21, 1999) should be the next "odd" day... and even if it's primes... then 23/11/1999 (november 23, 1999) should be the next "prime" day. What's up with this... maybe I missed some significance here... I'm confused about what's so special with today!!
    ---

  • Stuff that doesn't matter.

    who cares?
  • Amen, I always hated how people seemed so amazed by this when it is simply a definition.
  • What a coincidence. Everyone always told me I was odd.

    Happy 23rd to me! Yippee!
  • Statistically you have a good chance. Less than half of all people that have lived have died. So if this keeps up you might live to 1-1-3111.

  • 1111 years 1 month 11 days ... (Score:4)

    by jwjr (56765) on Friday November 19 1999, @08:17AM (#1518608)
    That's the number of days in the interval between
    this odd day and the next one. Of course, it
    falls out from the specification of an odd day
    and arithmetic, (and a little luck with the
    number of days this month) but it's still kind of
    neat.
  • If that wasn't enough to make you feel warm and fuzzy:

    TODAY IS A PRIME DAY, ALSO!

    The last prime day for a while (until 2/2/2003) will be 11/29. That is phat.

    And if that wasn't cool enough- 3/3/3119 is the next prime odd day. Wow....deep....warm and fuzzy.

  • woohoo!! (Score:3)

    by Pika (49094) on Friday November 19 1999, @08:18AM (#1518612)
    I was looking for a reason to get totally trashed tonight!! looks like I found it!
  • ...who loved stuff like this. (He probably mentioned it in class today back home.) I just missed his anniversary, too -- he got married on November 18, 1988, or 111888. He even has that six-digit number engraved on the innerside of his wedding ring.

    We won't have any of those combos around again until 11/11/2011 (111111) or 11/12/2022 (111222) if you want distinct digits.
  • Brain Malfunction...
    Segmentation Fault...
    Core Dumped.

    Ok, I realised that they actually meant ALL digits odd, as opposed to the actual numbers. That would then rule out 3/11/1999 (march 11, 1999) becuase it's actually 03/11/1999, and 0 is even... well sort of, that's actually mathematically debate-able, but I guess the idea is that all the digits are odd (and even if 0 isn't even, then neither is it odd).
    ---
  • time() returns 943045533.

    94304-5533 is a zip code in Palo Alto, California.

    • Coincidence? Or something far more sinister?

    Perhaps someone should modify XTraceRoute [chalmers.se] to show the physical location that corresponds to the current time_t.

  • um, dude:
    A)Slashdot is based in the US if i am not mistaken, and no one has said anything that suggests that it has a responsibility to be international (As nice as that would be).
    B)Just reverse the numbers and have a happy 19/11/1999.

    I agree with you about the date format, but it is not something to get bent out of shape about.
  • but the argument could be made that 1 is not an even or an odd number because an odd number must be only have two factors, 1 and itself. 1 is divisible only by itself, therefore, not odd.


    You just described PRIME numbers. Odd numbers are #s not evenly (that is with no remainder)divisible by 2. 0 is even because 0/2 = 0. 1 is not because 1/2 = .5.

    Kintanon
  • I guess I don't quite get it. Why won't 11/13/1999 be an odd day?

    Mike Eckardt [geocities.com] meckardt@yahoo.nospam.com
  • How would we never see the next one when the Grand Unified Theory of Physics will be discovered in 2050?
  • 1 is not prime because it is only divisible by one number, namely, itself.

    0 is not prime because it is divisible by an infinite number of numbers, namely, any number other than itself.

    Ho hum.

    Time to go be as odd as possible. :-)

    ---
  • Hmm ... so the last odd timestamp of our lifetime would be: 19:59:59 11/19/1999

    I'll be letting out a little whoop at that time to celebrate.

    :-)

  • How the hell is it ironic?
    Interesting, maybe, conincidental, maybe, but not ironic!
  • Can we get a list of odd days in the 3rd millenium? Bet there's plenty.

    In the third millennium, from 2001 - 3000, there are exactly 0 "odd" days. There will be 5000 "even" days though. In the fourth, from 3001 till 4000, there will be 8000 "odd" days. And 40 "even" days; all in the last year (4000). Note that we also have 40 "even" days left in this millennium.

    -- Abigail

  • Correction (Score:3)

    by mochaone (59034) on Friday November 19 1999, @07:39AM (#1518688)
    The next Odd day will be 1-1-3111 - which is well over a thousand years away, which we will never see

    Walt Disney is scheduled to be taken off ice then. That should coincide with the opening of Disney Solar System on Pluto.
  • Wouldn't the last prime timestamp be 23:59:59 19/11/1999?

    ----
  • If you are looking at digits, then the next even year is 2/2/2222, since 0 is not odd nor even. But if you are looking at the whole year, then 2000 is even. But that means that 1/1/2001 would be the next odd day, since 2001 is odd. So I suspect that it is digits we are looking at. Therefore, enjoy today while you can, it's going to be a *LOOOONG* time until an even or odd day.


    Ok, one more time for the math impaired. 0 = EVEN. Because it is divisible by 2 with no remainder. 0/2 = 0. Done, fini. It fits the definition of even.

    Kintanon
  • Why are int's not real? 12/6 = 2, so to is a real number right? two is certanly an integer....
    --
    "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
  • Short answer: Even.

    Long answer:
    You can say that any number divisible by 2 with no remainder is even. That makes zero even. You can also say any number divisible by 2 with a remainder of 1 is odd. That makes zero even.

    If you want to talk binary, the Least Significant Bit determines even or oddness, zero being even, one being odd. This makes zero even. Of course, that's just another way of saying the same as above.

    If you want to talk properties of even numbers, let's start with multiplication:
    Ev * Ev = Ev
    Ev * Od = Ev
    Od * Od = Od
    Zero times anything is zero. So,
    0 * Ev = 0
    0 * Od = 0
    As you can see, zero must be even by this method.

    Or how about addition?
    Ev + Ev = Ev
    Ev + Od = Od
    Od + Od = Ev
    Zero plus something = something. So,
    0 + Ev = Ev
    0 + Od = Od
    Again, zero must be even.

    Pretty much any way you slice it, zero is even.

    ---
  • read this post [slashdot.org]


    --
    "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"

  • Re:Now that's odd... (Score:3)

    by tim_m (27065) on Friday November 19 1999, @07:42AM (#1518766)
    > I guess I don't quite get it. Why won't 11/13/1999 be an odd day?

    It was. But that was 6 days ago. Today is the last one until 1-1-3111.

    Now, if there were a November 31st, that would count too, but, alas, there is not. So Happy Odd Day everybody!
  • On this Odd day, here is some Odd trivia for you:

    • 11 and 19 are both primes, as well as odd numbers. If 1999 is also prime, this will make this Prime Day, as well.
    • The Odd Prime: 2. It is the only even prime, making it most odd. :) (From the 'fortune cookie' program)
    • The total number of Odd numbers is equal to the total number of integers.
    • The integers are neither Real, or Imaginary, which makes them very Odd indeed!

  • Re:I don't know about you... (Score:3)

    by cpuffer_hammer (31542) on Friday November 19 1999, @07:43AM (#1518804) Homepage
    I plan to live for ever or die trying.

    (Blake-7)

  • 19111999 is prime as well (Score:3)

    by gargle (97883) on Friday November 19 1999, @11:26AM (#1518808) Homepage
    If you write the date in British format (as most countries do), 19/11/1999, then 19111999 is prime as well!

  • Nevertheless, a question (Score:3)

    by lahosken (24108) on Friday November 19 1999, @07:48AM (#1518884) Homepage Journal
    Why is this article under "It's Funny."?
    Is it supposed to be a parity?

  • Re:This is most Odd. :) (Score:3)

    by ajs (35943) <ajs&ajs,com> on Friday November 19 1999, @07:48AM (#1518887) Homepage Journal
    1999 does appear to be prime, given:

    perl -le 'for($i=int(sqrt(1999));$i>1;$i--) {print $i if int(1999/$i) == 1999/$i}'

    prints nothing, thus 1999 has no factors in the range of 2..int(sqrt(1999))

  • Re:This is most Odd. :) (Score:3)

    by Col. Klink (retired) (11632) on Friday November 19 1999, @07:54AM (#1518978)
    > The integers are neither Real [...]

    Yes they are. All Real numbers are not Integers, but all Integers are Real.

  • Re:all the digits are prefect squares too. (Score:3)

    by copito (1846) on Friday November 19 1999, @05:18PM (#1518996)
    Give me a minute....
    --

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