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===Inspiration for the number 42===
 
===Inspiration for the number 42===
There are quite a lot of numbers to choose from, so why did [[Douglas Adams]] choose 42? Basically he wanted a small, ordinary, innocuous number and he picked 42. [http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.douglas-adams/msg/d1064f7b27808692 This message] from Adams explains his choice. 27 Plus 42 = 69. The 6 and 9 are represented as 69. The center of gravity of earth lies at Varna a coastal town next to the Black Sea at coordinates 42 North and 27 East. Ref: Gravity Encyclopedia Americana volume 6.
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There are quite a lot of numbers to choose from, so why did [[Douglas Adams]] choose 42? Basically he wanted a small, ordinary, innocuous number and he picked 42. [http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.douglas-adams/msg/d1064f7b27808692 This message] from Adams explains his choice.
   
 
==Further reading==
 
==Further reading==

Revision as of 17:04, 4 January 2016

42, the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. This Answer was first calculated by the supercomputer Deep Thought after seven and a half million years of thought. This shocking answer resulted in the construction of an even larger supercomputer, named Earth, which was tasked with determining what the question was in the first place.

The Question

The Earth was destroyed by the Vogons five minutes before its ten-million year program was due to be completed. One of the only two humans who had survived the destruction of Earth, namely Arthur Dent, pulls random Scrabble tiles from a bag. When his friend, Ford Prefect, lines up the tiles, they spell, 'What do you get when you multiply six by nine?' Some readers of Adams have thought that this question was the aforementioned Ultimate Question. After all, it is Arthur who has been led to reveal this answer; Arthur is indeed from Earth; the Earth was the giant computer built to work out exactly what the Ultimate Question was; and 'what is 6 x 9?' is a bona fide question.

Behind the scenes

  • Readers have speculated, though, that 6 x 9 does indeed equal 42 when one calculates in base 13. Adams responded thus: 'I may be a sorry case, but I don't write jokes in base 13.'

Inspiration for the number 42

There are quite a lot of numbers to choose from, so why did Douglas Adams choose 42? Basically he wanted a small, ordinary, innocuous number and he picked 42. This message from Adams explains his choice.

Further reading