Letter: Expanding a palindrome

In regard to the article in the Feb. 1 Sun, "Any way you look at it, 2002 is palindrome year":

You could extend the digital palindrome to 12 digits by using the full military message method to display 8:02 p.m. on the 20th of February 2002.

This is accomplished by expressing the year in 4 digits, followed by the month in 2 digits, followed by the day in 2 digits, followed by the hour in 2 digits, and finally followed by the minutes in 2 digits. Thus giving the palindrome of (200202202002). We were trained to date stamp oral radio messages in this manner during World War II to avoid any ambiguity.

LEO JARZOMB

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