Dates often carry interesting numerical patterns that can be fun and meaningful to observe. 

So, what’s in the date today? No matter how it is written, DD/MM/YY or MM/DD/YY

16/9/25 or 9/16/25

Some questions to ask to help make observations:

• Do you observe any pattern?
• What do you observe about the numbers in each field?
• Do you see any relation between the numbers?

There are many relations one could observe. One might say, adding the values of ‘DD’ and ‘MM’ gives ‘YY’.

16 + 9 = 25

We also observe that each of the fields in the specified date are sequential square numbers.

Numerical representation : 

16 = 4² ; 9 = 3²; 25 = 5²

How about thinking geometrically: 

Square numbers can be represented as the area, where the side dimension is the one of the factor.

On seeing this pictorial representation, does it ring something on a pattern we usually come across in a right angled triangle?

How do you think it relates to the Pythagoras theorem?

Well, in a right-angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse (longest side) is equal to the sum of the squares of the other 2 sides.

Questions to ponder:

What do you think about writing today’s date in DD/MM/YYYY or MM/DD/YYYY format?

Do you still observe any pattern?

Are there any more dates in this year which make an interesting pattern? When do you think the next square pattern would be?

Do let me know in the comments.