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Re: Would you like a waffffer thin mint?
Posted By: Ayako, on host 216.119.20.178
Date: Sunday, October 8, 2000, at 23:54:24
In Reply To: Re: Would you like a waffffer thin mint? posted by shadowfax on Sunday, October 8, 2000, at 22:14:24:

> > 3) What is six times seven?
>
>
> The quote, from Restaurant at the End of the Universe, is (or at least was orignally if it's been changed in later printings) was "what do you get when you multiply 7 by 9," and the answer was "42." This of course is a math error, and no one really knows if it was another obscure joke or if it was just a misprint.

(Warning: This will make no sense to anyone who has not read the Hitchhiker's series. Is there anyone actually here who hasn't?)

Um. No. At first, when the mice are trying to think up a question to go to the answer "42", once suggests, "What is six times seven?", but it is rejected by the other mouse as being too logical and straightforward. Later, when Ford and Arthur try to read the question printed in Arthur's brainwaves by including a random element (pulling Scrabble pieces out of a bag), they get the question, "What do you get if you multiply six by nine?" Since Arthur's ancestors weren't the real experiment (those died off), obviously the question got messed up somehow. :-)