11/11/11: The Greatest Binary Day Of All

November 11, 2011, (or 11/11/11) will be your last binary day for almost a century, so enjoy it while it lasts.

We know we will.

Don't know what a binary day is? It's a date that consists of only 1's and 0's when written in mm/dd/yy format (or dd/mm/yy for our European readers). "Binary years" have only 9 such dates, meaning there are only 36 binary days in a century.

This binary day is as rare as it gets, since all six numbers in the date are 1's.

Be sure to scroll down for a very special binary treat.

When's the next binary day? Not until January 1, 2100 (1/1/00). (You can see a full list of binary dates from 2010 and 2011 at ExploringBinary.com.)

But like many odd dates, everyone has some odd prediction for the historic day. In fact, Egyptian officials have decided to close the Great Pyramid of Giza over fears that "strange rituals" may take place, according to Breitbart.

But sometimes weird things do happen.

From Fox News:

The last time it happened, November 11, 1911, temperatures in the U.S. fell a jaw-dropping 60 degrees over the course of a single day, causing blizzards and tornadoes. For some people, it was a special day.

Dr. Manny Alvarez of Fox News is also predicting that the date will break birth records worldwide.

But aside from the bizarre, it will truly be a special day for many couples. Apparently, wedding bookings for 11/11/11 are through the roof, making it one of the most popular dates in history to get married.

We'd also like to give a shout-out to fifth-grader Jacob Roach, who turns 11 years old at 11:57 p.m. on 11/11/11.

In any case, this is your last real excuse to play with binary and not truly expose your innermost nerd.

You can get your fix of simple binary fun (and email your friends some coded messages) using one of these simple binary coding tools:

Binary to Text (ASCII) Conversion

Binary Translator

Here's a little treat for the greatest binary day ever (We promise it's not as cruel as last time):

01101000 01110100 01110100 01110000 00111010 00101111 00101111 01100010 01101001 01110100 00101110 01101100 01111001 00101111 01110011 01101100 01100011 01110000 00110101 01001110

Comments

[gerryster]

10:45 PM on 11/11/2011

Here is an easy way to get the solution if you have Ruby installed:

ruby -e'"01101000 01110100 01110100 01110000 00111010 00101111 00101111 01100010 01101001 01110100 00101110 01101100 01111001 00101111 01110011 01101100 01100011 01110000 00110101 01001110".split(" ").each { |bin| print bin.to_i(2).chr }'

[skoupitsa]

06:49 PM on 11/11/2011

I loved this one myself: http://twitter.com/#!/grahamfarmelo/status/134640547649421313

[whodo1952]

05:26 PM on 11/11/2011

The number one,( 1 ) is of a singularity, arc or pivot, the number two ( II ) is of an equally / balance bridge, vector to vector, a valid and valued cooperation of both.

11/11/11 celebrates an un-natural "unity" of one.

[catsampsontweet]

05:11 PM on 11/11/2011

This is so exciting! #nerdnewyear

[cali-expat]

04:20 PM on 11/11/2011

I think it's way cooler that 111111 x 111111 = 12345654321 in decimal.

[Cowoak]

04:09 PM on 11/11/2011

01000110 01110101 01100011 01101011 00100000 01000010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01000100 01000001 01011001 00100001

[cardinalkeith86]

03:59 PM on 11/11/2011

6) Holding anniversaries on 9:11/11:11 am/pm as an attempt to reinforce or increase the significance of the feigned triplicate number is an additional absurdity, as the actual length of the day is approximately 23 hours and 56 minutes. As such, despite the intention, moments of silence are never held during that exact time;
7) That also means that dropping the ball annually at midnight can never occur on that exact moment when "1/1" is supposed to begin, yet another ubiquitous doublet that no one ever uses or understands (again, note another meaningless "11" reference, with slash included for extra camouflage);
8) All the aforementioned dates containing either the number 11 or its derivative multiples were "unlucky" days, to say the least.

Abbreviations of words and numbers are childish, which only serves to obscure the actual meaning of concepts they're supposed to represent.

[cardinalkeith86]

04:01 PM on 11/11/2011

The premise of this article is foolish and immature, for the following reasons, just to name a few:

1) Does the shorthand "/11" refer to the year 2011, or to the literal year 11?;
2) This insignificant, inaccurate calendar is based upon the birth year of the Christian religion's founder, which is generally accepted by most scholars as 4 BCE (Before the Common Era). As such, that would make the current year 2015, so 2011 already occurred four years earlier;
3) "November" was originally the ninth month in the Roman calendar, as the Latin prefix nova means "nine." Yes, that would make today 9/11, so stick that in your craw;
4) Yes, that would also make September 11 "7/11," as the prefix sept- means "seven." Note that tidbit the next time you roll dice or play the lottery,
5) Similarly, no one has ever referred to John Kennedy's assassination day as 11/22, Martin Luther King's assassination day as 4/4, D-Day as 6/6 (or 6/6/44, now how's that for multiples of 11 and other expanded doublets?), or Pearl Harbor Day as either 12/7 or "PH Day."

[fresnofreethinker]

04:35 PM on 11/11/2011

You are no fun at all. Sorry.... 11/11/11 is cool.

[cardinalkeith86]

09:34 AM on 12/15/2011

Are 6/6/44 and 9/11/11 totally cool, too? How about 4/4 or 11/22? So does the latter 11 represent the literal year 11, or an abbreviation for the full year 1111? Maybe World War I should have started 11 years earlier so it could have ended in 1911, but then that pesky 9 would have ruined all the fun.

Trivializing solemn days with false symbolism and abbreviations isn't supposed to be fun, it remains foolish and disrespectful. Future generations will be convinced that both September 11th and November 11th (see the unmistakable connotation?) occurred in 2011, because that's so easy to remember.

[mrhandyman3105]

03:51 PM on 11/11/2011

Beware. All the bogeymen will come out of the closet at 11:11pm on 11/11/11.

[foxisms]

02:39 PM on 11/11/2011

Between the fatalists and the walking numb this event (if an "event" at all) is very confusing and provocative.
All I know about "1" is, it's the loneliest number on one hand, and the digital representation of "on" or "active" on the other.
So, I take it as a possible portent or reminder that every 1 of us, collectively is the sum of 1 and we had perhaps get ON it and become ACTIVE with respect to that.
If enough of us do this, the rest will fall into place to the benefit of every-1 accordingly.

[PawZubr]

02:39 PM on 11/11/2011

"or dd/mm/yy for our European readers" - you meant "for our non-American readers". Using mm/dd/yy seems to be a little illogical ;-)

[cali-expat]

04:28 PM on 11/11/2011

they're both illogical, everybody knows it should be yy/mm/dd - it sorts correctly.

[WSAY]

02:31 PM on 11/11/2011

Except the date is 11112011.

[Fudgefase]

02:27 PM on 11/11/2011

I have been watching the binaries this year. It's been fun. So long 111111

[scenethelight]

02:24 PM on 11/11/2011

There are only 10 kinds of people in this world....t­hose who understand binary, and those who don't.

[WSAY]

02:33 PM on 11/11/2011

Why do mathematicians and programmers always confuse Halloween and Christmas?

Because 31 Oct = 25 Dec.

[rsheeran]

02:24 PM on 11/11/2011

This fall under.......Yawn.

[WSAY]

02:34 PM on 11/11/2011

But your read it and you commented on it. Kinda something about YOU, eh?

[in2it]

04:35 AM on 11/14/2011

I read it because I kept thinking I might understand what all the fuss was about. It seems quite illogical to me since there is a 2 and a 0 in the year, and the mm/dd/yy is just a shortcut so one doesn't have to write out the date in full. A calendar is a device created by humans to keep track of time as it passes, and dates differ by cultures.