Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 16:19:55 +1100 (EST) From: Iain Templeton <iaint@css.tuu.utas.edu.au> To: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: 42 (was Re: Microsoft go it right ;-)) Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0001181617350.27180-100000@depravitas.tuu.utas.edu.au> In-Reply-To: <38851E6F.23416412@outpost.co.nz>
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On Tue, 18 Jan 2000, Craig Harding wrote: > Much later, after a series of unlikely adventures, Arthur Dent and Ford > Prefect ended up on prehistoric Earth with its indigenous population of > cavemen in the company of a starship-load of Golgafrincham telephone > sanitisers. Ford and Arthur realised that the Question locked in > Arthur's brain could be recovered through the unconscious direction of a > random act (pulling scrabble letters from a bag) and came up with "what > do you get if you multiply six by nine". > Although six by nine is 54, which if expressed in a base 13 number system does come out at 42 (4 x 13 = 52 + 2 = 54). I sat there for a few minutes trying to make sense of it, and that was the best I could do. Although... > The incorrect Question is explained by the fact that the presence of the > Golgafrincham settlers on Earth killed off the native pre-human > population, distorting the original setup conditions for the experiment. > Makes far more sense. > (no, I don't have the books with me at work. Entirely from memory. Very > disturbing!) > Wow! Iain To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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