The Answer is 42 - but what about the Question?

[Peter_20]

Douglas Adams stated that the ultimate Answer to Everything is 42.
I've never heard about the Question, though, so what is it?

[Bunny]

How many roads must a man walk down?

[DK]

How much is that doggy in the window?

[Firo Volondé]

What do you get when you multiply six by nine?

In the books, somebody (Prak, iirc) says "The Question and Answer are mutually exclusive. Knowledge of the one logically precludes knowledge of the other." Which, in simpler terms, means if you know the Answer, you cannot know the Question and vice versa.

[Levian]

On a scale from 1 to 50, how fat do I look in this dress? :confused:

[DK]

What is the average age of people who claim to be teenage girls on the internet?

[Bunny]

Being the Answer to Everything, the Question can be assumed to be anything.

[Discord]

Actually, it's an interesting one. Douglas Adams was a bright fellow, pretty good at maths and physics from what I've heard. If I remember right, it's the mass (or size) of the graviton which is 4,19 x 10^-42 some something(or something like that). Of couse, this is not stated anywhere in the book.

[scrumpleberry]

Meh, I heard he just picked a random number. I think in one of the later books it was

"What do you get when you multiply six by seven?"

[Old Manus]

What is love? Baby don't hurt me.

[Bunny]

The question is:

What is the sum of characters in Old Manus' last post (#10 in this thread) and the characters in his name?

"What is love? Baby don't hurt me.Old Manus"
or
"Old ManusWhat is love? Baby don't hurt me."

This equation includes spaces as characters.

[Old Manus]

You catch on better than I thought possible

[Jessweeee♪]

I'm trying to think of a clever question, but I'm not witty enough :cry:

[DK]

What is the number of people who read this thread and faced the same dilemma as Jessweeee♪ but decided not to post about it?

[f f freak]

Actually the question is very simple.

Q. What is the answer to everything?
A. 42

Simple is it not?

[Ouch!]

The only time the Question is actually expressed in the form of a question (when Arthur pulls pieces randomly out a scrabble jar), it says: "What do you get when you multiply six by nine?" This is not a typo. Six times nine equals 42 in base thirteen.

Adams denies that this joke was intentional, however. It's defunct, anyway, as Golgafrinchans landed on Earth (the computer calculating the Question) and replaced the inhabitants that were part of the program. As a descendent of Golgafrinchans, the question Arthus produces cannot be correct.

"The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought '42 will do.' I typed it out. End of story."

Further, in the final novel, Ford tells the cab driver "just there, number forty-two... Right there!" in reference to club Beta. Club Beta, owned by Stavro Muller, was referred to long ago, in the second book, I believe. As long as Arthur had not yet visited Starvomullabeta (or something like that which sounded an awful lot like club Beta and its owner's name), he knew that he could not die.

There's other theories, but they're not worth arguing.

Edit: I wouldn't take anything in the book seriously or expect that it has any profound meaning. In the foreword Adams writes for The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide (a compliation of all five books and a short story detailing how Zaphod met Martin), he states that the idea came to him while hitchhiking across Europe. It's been a while since I read the foreword, but I think Adams was also drunk when the idea of a novel came to him. He didn't write it for many years after, anyway. The point is, I think looking for any sort of depth or meaning is a horrible waste of time.

[YTDN]

Think of a number, any number.

[Griff]

How many people from outside the U.S. actually like George Bush?

[Ouch!]

Think of a number, any number.
Five.

[Croyles]

Divide 84 86 by the number of collective brain cells that the EoFF 'The Lounge' forum has.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
:D

[YTDN]

Think of a number, any number.
Five.

Wrong.

[Ramza Beoulve]

How many people from outside the U.S. actually like George Bush?
With a minus sign before it :D

[Masamunemaster]

what is 4+2....42 yay I won

[Elite Lord Sigma]

What is the number of pointless questions I can endure before I start getting urges to run the askers through with a lightsaber?

[The black mage]

How many Xbox fanboys/girls does it take to screw in a light bulb

End of story.(ish)
Realy it was probaly a random number the man thought up, and some idiots have ran with it

[Bunny]

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

[Ichimonji]

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, __?

[Ramza Beoulve]

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, __?The... numbers... the... Valenzetti... equation...


:O_O:...


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!

[bipper]

Does the question have to be in the form of an answer?

[Namelessfengir]

Q who the hall cares
a 42

[Croyles]

Does the question have to be in the form of an answer?

The question has to be in the form of a question. :choc2:

[Ouch!]

I'm incredibly disappointed by the severe lack of Hitchhiker's jokes being thrown around in this thread. At least YTDN's got it down.