What an Amazing Date!

There are lots of good dates — meeting at a bookstore coffee shop for, well, perusing books and sipping coffee; spending hours playing Super Mario Bros. and Pac-Man at a retro video game arcade; and, of course, going to an open-mic comedy show where one of the performers tells nothing but math jokes.

But great dates? Well, those are pretty rare. My first date with my wife — where I took her to a hotel and “whispered” to her from the couch across the lobby — is an example, though the stimulating conversation and her perfect laugh may have contributed more than the elliptical ceiling. (Maybe.)

Few dates, however, can compare to today’s date:

12/3/21

Look at that beautiful symmetry! Marvel at its palindromic magnificence! The way it rises then falls, like a Shostakovich melody.

But wait… there’s more! Consider the following pattern:

1 × 1 = 1

11 × 11 = 121

111 × 111 = ?

That’s right! The number 12,321 is a perfect square! And not only that, its square root contains only 1s.

Moreover, check this out:

1 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 9

That’s right! It’s a square number, and the sum of its digits is also a square number!

Finally, here’s a KenKen puzzle that makes use of the number, though it’s not unique unless one of the digits is already filled in:

No matter how you choose to celebrate, here’s hoping your day is as great as the date!