General Witterings -
Twiddly Bits on Rosy

Not many boaty things have happened on Rosy during the past week, so this letter will be short.  ish..

And this coming week, I'm going to have an emergency couple of days in UK, so there is unlikely to be a Rosy letter next weekend.

Meanwhile ...

For those who like symmetry ...

This year is 2002.  Last Wednesday was the 20th January, which can be written as 20.02.  At 8.02pm, the time could be written as 2002.  Hence the year, date, time can be written as:

2002 20.02 2002

Which is symmetrical and palindromic.

This has happened once before since the year 0, namely in 1001, on 10th Jan at 1001.

The next possibility would be in 3003, but the 24 hour clock stops at 24, so there is no 30th hour, so the palindrome can't happen again.

Of course, for the next few years, 'nice' date/times will crop up:

2003 20.03 2003 2004 20.04 2004

etc., but these lack the beauty of the palindrome.

Talking of such things ...

BBC Radio 4 recently ran a series on magic numbers, and lit upon infinity.

Imagine the Infinite Hotel - an hotel with an infinite number of rooms.  Every room is occupied.  Along comes a traveller seeking a room.  In a full hotel.  No problem.

The receptionist switches on an intercom (that goes to all the rooms) and asks everyone to look at their room number, add one to it, and move into that room.  Hence the new guest can be accommodated in Room 1.

A few moments later, the Infinite Football Team arrives at the hotel, seeking accommodation.  The team is composed of an infinite number of people.

The receptionist switches on the intercom again, apologises for disturbing everybody again, and asks them to re-check their room numbers.  Would each person now multiply their room number by 2, and then move into the resultant room.

Hence the person in Room #1 moves to Room #2.  and the person in Room #2 moves to Room #4.  This leaves all the odd numbered rooms empty, and available for the Infinite Football Team.

That's all, Folks!!

Toodle pip!!

Bill