1988 AJHSME Problems/Problem 25

Problem

A palindrome is a whole number that reads the same forwards and backwards. If one neglects the colon, certain times displayed on a digital watch are palindromes. Three examples are: $\boxed{1:01}$ , $\boxed{4:44}$ , and $\boxed{12:21}$ . How many times during a $12$ -hour period will be palindromes?

$\text{(A)}\ 57 \qquad \text{(B)}\ 60 \qquad \text{(C)}\ 63 \qquad \text{(D)}\ 90 \qquad \text{(E)}\ 93$

Solution

From $1$ to $9$ , the times will be of the form $\boxed{a:ba}$ . There are $9$ choices for $a$ and $6$ choices for $b$ , so there are $9\cdot 6 =54$ times in this period.