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From: adamsd@nic.cerf.net (Douglas Adams)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams
Subject: Re: Why 42 ?
In Article <2b4asr$b7r@syzygy.socs.uts.edu.au>, mjcherka@socs.uts.EDU.AU
(Mark J Cherkas) wrote:
>
>I am new to this group so bear with this beginners question:
>Why is the answer 42 ?
>Has Douglas Adams ever explained this ?
>
>
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.
Best,
Douglas Adams