# Hitchhiker fans, help! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 1, 2002, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitchhiker-fans-help/106587 "2002-05-01T00:07:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TommyTutone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@TommyTutone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TommyTutone)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitchhiker-fans-help/106587/1 "2002-05-01T00:07:32Z")
I know, everyone knows that the answer to the Ultimate answer is 42 (sorry for not putting spoilers in the title), but I THOUGHT I read in one of the books that even though the earth had been destroyed, the question had been deciphered as well, and that question was “What is 6 times 8?”. Without reading through all the books again (not that that is a bad thing), can anyone confirm that? Help, I’m about to panic:p ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitchhiker-fans-help/106587/2 "2002-05-01T00:11:13Z")
If you look in one of the later books (probably the fourth one), Arthur and Ford play a game pulling scrabble tiles out of a bag on the assumption that some random human factor will… well, I didn’t understand exactly. They end up spelling “What do you get when you multiply six by nine?” and conclude there must be a cock-up somewhere. All memories approximate. ---
**Author:** ![Juniper200](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@Juniper200](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juniper200)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitchhiker-fans-help/106587/3 "2002-05-01T00:11:52Z")
When Arthur pulls Scrabble tiles out of the bag at the end of “Restaurant,” he comes up with the question “What do you get when you multiply six by nine?” The answer to this question is, of course, not 42. He got the wrong question because he was descended from the shipwrecked Golgafrinchans, not the apemen who were originally part of Earth’s programming. Even if Earth hadn’t been destroyed and the question-finding program had been completed, the humans had the wrong question imprinted on their brainwave patterns. Hence, “six by nine.” ---
**Author:** ![Juniper200](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@Juniper200](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juniper200)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitchhiker-fans-help/106587/4 "2002-05-01T00:16:11Z")
Simulpost! I think this means we have to get married or something, Bryan. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitchhiker-fans-help/106587/5 "2002-05-01T04:36:02Z")
Consulting the guide: > **[h2g2 - Oops.](https://h2g2.com/alabaster/A709841)** > > h2g2, the Unconventional Guide to Life, the Universe and Everything And > **[What is 42 (h2g2, meaning of life, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)? -...](https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/42-h2g2-meaning-of-life-The-Hitchhikers-Guide-to-the-Galaxy)** > > 42 is the number from Douglas Adams' 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,' from which all meaning ('the meaning of life, the universe, and everything') could be derived. The best bet for the 6x9 question is to use the numbers as a base 13: > [@](#): > > For the literal-minded and those unfamiliar with terms like “base thirteen,” this is a number system in which the number 10 is equivalent to our more familiar decimal 13. A base-13 number 42, therefore, is the same as four 13s plus 2, or decimal 54. So “six by nine” (six times nine) or decimal 54 is, in base 13, 42. For the mystically inclined, 42 in base 13 is the same as 110110 in binary (base 2). DNA is on record as using that binary in the plain vanilla solution. If you still insist in the question being 6x7: [http://www.non.com/news.answers/douglas-adams-FAQ.html](http://www.non.com/news.answers/douglas-adams-FAQ.html) > [@](#): > > In an interview, published in ‘Mostly Harmless’ (The ZZ9 club magazine), DNA mentioned that he had made a puzzle that depicted 42 in 10 different ways. Here’s the solution: > > There are 6 rowes of 7 spheres, making a grand total of 42. On the left is a white globe with a bar code on it. 4 lines have no thick line next to them, 2 do. > > Next, all 7 lines of the diagram can be read as: 0101010, which is 42 in binary, if: > > White, blue, green, ‘light yellow’ == 0 > Red, purple, ‘dark yellow’, black == 1 > > Finally, if you take only the blue, green, purple, and black spheres, they spell ‘42’ in quite big letters. Exactly 10 ways to solve the problem! > > * * * > > (From Douglas Adams, in his speech to Washington University): > > 42 spheres > Bar Code = 42 > Earth in bottom right corner [= “42”] > spheres with red tint (orange, red, etc) = “1”, spheres w/o red = “0” > gets 0101010 lines = “42 in binary” > spheres with blue tint gives a big “42” across the whole puzzle > spheres with yellow tint gives a big “XLII” across the top of the page > > He didn’t mention the “10” solutions, just that he fit in as many as were humane to include. Mostly harmless. ---
**Author:** ![LifeWillFall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@LifeWillFall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeWillFall)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitchhiker-fans-help/106587/6 "2002-05-01T06:28:56Z")
I don’t know if this is what you had in mind, but at the end of hitchhiker weren’t the mice trying to come up with question that had the answer 42 to satisfy the other mice people, and one of the quesiton they thought about was what is 6x7, but they decided the question was to straighforward. ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitchhiker-fans-help/106587/7 "2002-05-01T15:38:53Z")
One of my favorite quotes of DNA was given at a lecture at CMU in 1999, in response to the base 13 question. “I don’t write jokes in base 13.” 🙂