h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Was thinking of hosting this on my Home Space but here seems as good a place as any!? I'm also going to post it to my home space and maybe articalise it - what do you think?

This started off as an exercise in Numerical Manipulation to keep the Brain ticking over while we were stuck in H0G0 (Rupert, or whatever). But while we were using Yahoo!Groups it seemed to catch on.

Basically I took all the User Numbers I could find (fortuitously (?) someone was running a "Compo" to guess when H2G2 would be back and required peeps to quote their User Numbers) and manipulate them to Make 42 keeping the Numbers in Order. So far one has escaped successful manipulation (U109000) (without cheating) - the exceptions to this rule seem to be the majority of The PTB.

Acceptable functions are:
x - Multiply
/ - Divide
+ - Plus
- - Minus
sqrt - Square Root
^ - to the power of
! - Factorial (also known as Shreak) n! = 1*2*3*....*n

Hmm - thought this would be a simple post but now it feels like a whole new Article - is there a "History of the H0G0" thread/article - and no I don't feel like creating it - but I would contribute!

See below for the compiled list:
U77080 = 7*((7+0)-(8^0)) = 42
U35761 = -3*(5-7)*(6+1) = 42
U55660 = (5/5+6)*6+0 = 42
U118987 = (-1-1+8)*((9-8)*7) = 42
U40077 = (-(40^0)+7)*7 = 42
U32373 = (3*2)*(3+7-3) = 42
U98816 = (9-(8/8)-1)*6 = 42
U34006 = (3+4+0+0)*6 = 42
U63974 = (6+39) - (7-4) = 42
U150740 = (1+5+0) * 7 + (4*0) = 42
U55226 = (-5-5) + (2 * 26) = 42
U25843 = 2+(5*8) * (4-3) = 42
U137209 = ((-1^3)+7) * (-2+0+9) = 42
U36004 = 36 + ((-(0^0)+4)!) = 42 (n! = 1 * 2 * 3 * .... * n)
U144292 = -1 + (4*4*2) + 9 + 2 = 42
U96736 = 9 + (6*7) -3-6 = 42
U165416 = ((6+1) + (5-4-1)) * 6 = 42
U95721 = 9 + (58*7) - (2*1) = 42
U140161 = (1+4+0+1) * (6+1) = 42
U32373 = 3 + (3*2*7) - 3 = 42
U62867 = (6+2-8) + (6*7) = 42
U36314 = (3!*6) + (3-1+4) = 42
U112242 = 1-1+2-2 + 42 = 42
U31911 = (3!*1) * (9-1-1) = 42
U147884 = 1+4!-7+8-8+4! = 42 or 1*47-(8/8+4) = 42
>>>
u117050 = ((-1*1)-7)+0+50 = 42
U116149 = (1*1+6) * (1-4+9) = 42
U36314 = 36 + 3 - 1 + 4 = 42
U137575 = (13-7)*5+7+5 = 42
U157859 = 1+(5*7)-8+5+9 = 42
U110237 = (1+(1*0)+2+3)*7 = 42
U145443 = (1+4) + (5*(4+4)) -3 = 42
U136999 = (1*3!) + 6^((9+9)/9) = 42
U97201 = 9x7-20-1 = 42
U99389 = 9+((9/3)*8)+9 = 42
U165416 = (1+6+5-4-1)x6 = 42
U95721 = 9 + (5*7) - (2*1) = 42
U135628 = 13-5+6+28 = 42
U28269 = -(2+8+2) + (6*9) = 42
U109937 = 1*0*9+ (9-3) * 7 =42
U13 = 13! = 6227020800 = (6+2-2) * 7 + 0 + (2080*0) = 42
U108957 = 10 + 89 - 57 = 42
U145669 = (1-(4-5))*(6+6+9)=42
U109000 = 10 9! 000 = 10 362880 000 = (1+0-3+6+2) * (8-(8000^0)) = 42 OR BIG CHEAT!! = 10(base 13)+9 = 19(Base13) + 0*0*0 = 22 = 42 (base5) or EVEN BIGGER CHEAT 10(Base 42) + (9*0*0*0) = 42!!! OR 10 9! 000 = 10 362880 000 = (1+0-3+6+2) * (8-(8000^0)) = 42
U162344 = (1+6)*2*3 + (4-4) = 42
U133060 = (1+3+3+0) * (6+0) = 42
U45177 = ((4-5)*1 + 7) * 7 = 42
u142645 = (1*4+2) * (6-4+5) = 42
U161154 = ((1*6)*(-1-1)) + 54 =42
U162817 = ((1+6)*-2)+(8*1*7) = 42
U50994 = (5*0) + (9+9) +4! = 42
U55494 = (5*5) + 4 + 9 + 4 = 42
U113478 = -1-1-(3*4)+(7*8) = 42
U101573 = (1+0+1+5+7)x3 = 42
U168284 = (1+6) * (((8*2)/8)+4) = 42
U155058 = (1+5) * ((5/(0-5))+8) = 42
U94957 = (-9 + 49) + -5 + 7 = 42

Here's a couple more for you.

U216346 -> (2x1x6)-((3-4)x6) = 36-(-6) = 42
U216362 -> (2x1x6)-((3-6)x2) = 36-(-6) = 42

Those two are mine and my mate dragonlovers.

Hang on something went wrong there? Sorry, we worked it out yesterday and it made total sense. We trying to work out what the hell we are on about.

U216346 -> (2x1x6)-((3-4)x6) = 36-(-6) = 42
U216362 -> (2x1x6)-((3-6)x2) = 36-(-6) = 42

I can see what you mean, it should be....

U216346 -> ((2+1)!x6)-((3-4)x6) = 3!x6 - -6 36-(-6) = 6x6 + 6 = 42

And

U216362 -> ((2+1!)x6)-((3-6)x2) = 36-(-6) = 42

[200242update]

A194311 I did mine (1+9)x4 +(3-(1x1)=42 is this correct??

A194113 sorry i got numbers mixed up on last posting..

Last attempt try U194113 ....????

But it should be the 54 game as Adams states at the end of "The restaurant at the end of the universe" that "What do you you get if you multiply six by nine?

Ford and Arther say...

"You mean that's it?" said Ford.
"Six by Nine. Forty-two."
"That's it. That's all there is."

But it isn't all there is as six by nine is 54 and not 42, so the question is 12 more than the answer.

So therefore the question to life, the universe and everything is 12 more than the answer.

Work that one out with your numbers....

....and the answer to the life, universe and everything is 0.77777777777777777 smaller than the question?

Just to put some contrevercy to the number 12, CNN reported that Adams had died on 12 may 2001. He passed on the Friday which was the 11 may 2001 at the age of 49 and was first published in 1979, so I'm sure you all can come up with some wonderful ideas on how Adams predicted his own universes end. i.e the end of Hitchhikers...

Ah, but... 54 Base 10 = 42 Base 13.... Thus leading to the conclusion that Deep Thought was, instead of a Binary, or even trinary, a TriDecary Computer...

Or maybe that was the Earth and DT was simply a decary computer...