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From: meister@linus.UUCP (Phillip W. Servita)
Newsgroups: net.math
Subject: Re: The number 1729.
Message-ID: <558@linus.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 13-Sep-85 14:33:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: linus.558
Posted: Fri Sep 13 14:33:44 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 14-Sep-85 03:54:12 EDT
References: <693@tpvax.fluke.UUCP> <159@ho95e.UUCP>
Reply-To: meister@linus.UUCP (Phillip W. Servita)
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA
Lines: 17

>> One last thing, while I'm on the topic of numbers: someone told me once that
>> the number 42 has some special mathematical significance, but I forget what
>> it is. It is the answer a computer named "Deep Thought" gave to the
>> question, "What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything?" in the
>> novel _Hitchhikers_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_. Does anyone know why the author
>> chose this number? Or what it's mathematical significance might be?
>>  Gary Benson
>Later on, the question (to which 42 is the answer) reveals itself to
>Arthur Dent:
>	What is six times nine?
>-- 
>## Bill Stewart

6 * 9 = 42 in base 13. (i guess this is why the world is so screwed up.)

                                           -the venn buddhist