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Exploring Palindromes in ELA and Math

There's a lesson related to this article at Byrdseed.TV

Explore palindromic words, phrases, and numbers. Photo by Laura M Bailey

Palindromes are one of those fun ideas that some gifted kids just latch onto. A word that’s the same forwards and backwards? Crazy! Here are some classic palindrome words:

  • Eve
  • deed
  • madam
  • redder
  • racecar

Phrases

But, of course, we can expand palindromes to include phrases and sentences as well:

  • Evil olive
  • Madam, I’m Adam.
  • A man, a plan, a canal: Panama.

This article, about the Enigma codebreakers from World War II, includes some incredible palindromes that they created in their spare time:

Doc, note, I Dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod.

Numbers

Of course, you can also have palindromic numbers, such as: 99, 202, and 3003. There are lots of interesting ways to explore palindromes in math. Find:

  • perfect squares that are also palindromes (such as 121)
  • prime palindromes (like 101)

And finally, there’s a mathematical curiosity that students might enjoy. If you add a number plus its reverse, you will eventually find a palindromic number. Here’s an example:

  1. Let’s start with 56.
  2. Add the reverse: 56 + 65
  3. We get 121. It’s a palindrome!

Here’s one that’s a little more complicated:

  1. Start with 58
  2. Add the reverse: 58 + 85
  3. We get 143, not yet a palindrome
  4. Add the reverse: 143 + 341
  5. We get 484, a palindrome!

If you’re a Byrdseed.TV subscriber, there’s an app and a video about palindromic numbers.

Further Resources

  • Palindromic Words
  • Palindromic Phrases
  • And, thanks to reader Shirlena for pointing me to Weird Al’s song Bob, written entirely in palindromic phrases.
  • And another reader pointed me towards Jon Agee’s books, such as Palindromania! and Sit on a Potato Pan, Otis!

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More about Math Curiosities
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  2. Why Pi?
  3. The Collatz Conjecture
  4. Goldbach’s Conjecture
  5. Prime Number Explorations
There are even more articles about Math Curiosities →
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