How DID Deep Thought get 42... I've got that answer...

[squidocaster]

Many cult-geeks have rattled their brains trying to figure out Deep Thought's calculations, and I've found it. (The cult-geek to end all cult-geeks.)

Life, the Universe, and Everything.
1 conjunction + 1 article. (=2)
3 nouns.
28 letters in all.
Divide 28 by 2. (=14)
Multiply the 14 by 3. (=42!!!)

It only took my a few minutes to come up with it, too. I wonder if Douglas Adams actually got 42 that way...  

[Cracovin]

hmm...*Turns into a new reporter* So how does it feel to be smarter then a computer? 7 million times smarter.  

[squidocaster]

Cracovin

hmm...*Turns into a new reporter* So how does it feel to be smarter then a computer? 7 million times smarter.

Well... it does hurt the brain...

I suppose it also means I have more spare time than a computer. stare  

[Aojiroi]

<3 Someone actually told me that once, not in the same way but almost the same way.

You know I love this book so much but I could never sit down and figure this out. You are indeed my hero!

<3  

[Polan]

Wow. Good work. And once more, laziness of myself has proved efficient in getting me answers anyways. whee  

[aaadamaa]

if you reversed everything in that probablem, would that not give you the untimate question?  

[squidocaster]

aaadamaa

if you reversed everything in that probablem, would that not give you the untimate question?

Awright. Next bit of spare time I've got, I'll figure that out. sweatdrop  

[Starrys]

But dosn't it say in Restuarant at the End of the Universe that the question is 6 multiplied by 9? I know that it dosn't equal 42, but thats what it said. I dunno, I might be wrong, because I only just finished that book.  

[phantasmic kacaphony]

Starrys

But dosn't it say in Restuarant at the End of the Universe that the question is 6 multiplied by 9? I know that it dosn't equal 42, but thats what it said. I dunno, I might be wrong, because I only just finished that book.

It does, but when I first read it, I didn't even realize that 6 X 9 isn't even 42. I think Douglas just threw it in there for the hell of it. I don't know razz  

[wakusei]

This site has a lot of different ways you can come up with 42.  

[MST3Kakalina]

42 is 6 x 9 in base 13 (though that's pretty much a coincidence, as "no one makes jokes in base 13.")

i imagine he just picked a number that was fun to say, and fun to imagine a computer's voice saying.

but yours is quite an ingenius method. eek i don't know if i would have come up with it.  

[Tinnumir]

I heard somewhere (I think it was on the H2G2 BBC DVD) that DNA and someone else actually sat down and figured out what is the funniest number of them all, and decided it was 42.  

[squidocaster]

Tinnumir

I heard somewhere (I think it was on the H2G2 BBC DVD) that DNA and someone else actually sat down and figured out what is the funniest number of them all, and decided it was 42.

...That's probably more accurate than what I came up with.  

[Daska]

I thought he just picked it because it was funny. You guys are over thinking this.  

[J.I.N.X]

Daska

I thought he just picked it because it was funny. You guys are over thinking this.

3nodding yeah i think you are...

its interesting though, alot of thinking- it hurts my head to think about thinking that hard about something *scratches head* yeah i said that right