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Why 09/09/09 Is So Special
Everyone from brides and grooms to movie studio execs are celebrating the upcoming calendrical anomaly in their own way.
In Florida, at least one county clerk´s office is offering a one-day wedding special for $99.99. The rarity of this Sept. 9 hasn´t been lost on the creators of the iPod, who have moved their traditional Tuesday release day to Wednesday to take advantage of the special date. Focus Features is releasing their new film "9," an animated tale about the apocalypse, on the 9th.
Not only does the date look good in marketing promotions, but it also represents the last set of repeating, single-digit dates that we´ll see for almost a century (until January 1, 2101), or a millennium (mark your calendars for January 1, 3001), depending on how you want to count it.
Though technically there´s nothing special about the symmetrical date, some concerned with the history and meaning of numbers ascribe powerful significance to 09/09/09.
For cultures in which the number nine is lucky, Sept. 9 is anticipated - while others might see the date as an ominous warning.
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As part of his obsession with numbers both mathematically and divine, and like many mathematicians before and since, Pythagoras noted that nine in particular had many unique properties.
Any grade-schooler could tell you, for example, that the sum of the two-digits resulting from nine multiplied by any other single-digit number will equal nine. So 9x3=27, and 2+7=9.
Multiply nine by any two, three or four-digit number and the sums of those will also break down to nine. For example: 9x62 = 558; 5+5+8=18; 1+8=9.
Sept. 9 also happens to be the 252nd day of the year (2 + 5 +2)...
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090908/sc_livescience/why090909issospecial
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