The cover of the original UK paperback edition of the novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyIn The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (published in 1979), the characters visit the legendary planet Magrathea, home to the now-collapsed planet-building industry, and meet Slartibartfast, a planetary coastline designer who was responsible for the fjords of Norway.
Through archival recordings, he relates the story of a race of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings who built a computer named Deep Thought to calculate the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
When the answer was revealed to be 42, Deep Thought had predicted that another computer, more powerful than itself would be made and designed by it to calculate the question for the answer. (Later on, referencing this, Adams would create the 42 Puzzle, a puzzle which could be approached in multiple ways, all yielding the answer 42.)
Here is the answer. What are the 42 questions?
2 Hints:
a) "How many questions are there in the 42 Puzzle?"
b) See blog entry title
FACTOIDS:
-- There are 42 eggs in 3 1/2 dozen of Eggs.
-- The President of the United States, between "the bushes" was #42.
-- People born in 1942, were 42 in 1984, leading some to speculate a time-space relationship between Douglas Adams and George Orwell.
-- There are no Wikipedia entries for the date April 2, 1942 (4/2/42)
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1 comment:
As everyone knows, Magrathea doesn't really exist. It's a fairy tale parents tell their children if they want them to grow up to be economists.
Sure, between the Bushes there was President #42, but that's true for almost any number. For example, between President Cleveland and President Cleveland there was President Harrison: #23.
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