Saturday, 25 June 2011

Cool times

I have a 24h digital clock with a 4 digit 7 segment display. I can't help but notice that some of the times on this clock are "cooler" than others. I seemed to come across these numbers more often than I expected (given that there are 1440 hour minute combinations each day) (probably an example of confimration bias). Some examples:

Symmetry around the colon
00:00
01:10
02:20
03:30
04:40
05:50
10:01
11:11
12:21
13:31
14:41
15:51
20:02
21:12
22:22
23:32





Symmetry around the colon (taking into account that 2s are the mirror image of 5s)
02:50
05:20
12:51
15:21
20:05
21:15
22:25
22:52
22:55
23:35

Sequential up (each digit)
01:23
12:34
23:45

Sequential up (hours, then minutes)
00:01
01:02
02:03
03:04
04:05
05:06
06:07
07:08
08:09
09:10
10:11
11:12
12:13
13:14
14:15
15:16
16:17
17:18
18:19
19:20
20:21
21:22
22:23
23:24

Sequential down (hours, then minutes)
01:00
02:01
03:02
04:03
05:04
06:05
07:06
08:07
09:08
10:09
11:10
12:11
13:12
14:13
15:14
16:15
17:16
18:17
19:18
20:19
21:20
22:21
23:22

Hours = minutes
00:00
01:01
02:02
03:03
04:04
05:05
06:06
07:07
08:08
09:09
10:10
11:11
12:12
13:13
14:14
15:15
16:16
17:17
18:18
19:19
20:20
21:21
22:22
23:23

Minutes = Hours x 2
01:02
02:04
03:06
04:08
05:10
06:12
07:14
08:16
09:18
10:20
11:22
12:24
13:26
14:28
15:30
16:32
17:34
18:36
19:38
20:40
21:42
22:44
23:46

Hours = Minutes x 2
02:01
04:02
06:03
08:04
10:05
12:06
14:07
16:08
18:09
20:10
22:11

There are also a few specials:

00:12    Weak sequential
00:42    Answer to life the universe and everything
03:14    Pi
09:50    Ten to ten
10:10    Ten past ten
16:18    Golden ratio
21:50    Ten to ten
22:10    Ten past ten

In conclusion, I think the reason for my observation reflects when I typically go to bed:
23:22
23:23
23:24

An idea coming from this: a 24h digital clock with a 4 digit 7 segment display that displays the "cool" numbers in a different colour.

(N.B. 121 cool numbers identified using the above rules)

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