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

My name is daro and my reseacher # is 189991. would someone mind calculating mine. I cant do it. please help.

Not the easiest I've tried, hope you don't mind the InvTan *cheat*...

InvTan (1) + 8 - 9 - 9/9 - 1 = 42

and scraping through thanks to the Guide defining 6 * 9 as 42...

-1 + 8 - 9/9 * 9 * 1 = 6 * 9 * 1

six7's

Whoops, missed the brackets out

-1 + 8 - 9/9 * 9 * 1 = 6 * 9 * 1 = -2

( -1 + 8 - 9/9 ) * ( 9 * 1 ) = 6 * 9

Thanx.
i didnt know that. i wonder how many other loop holes there are?
anyway, thanx again
-daro

coincidentally a fellow aussie.



oh and if the writer of this page wouldnt mind, can you add me to the list.

:D

Woo this one is tough - here's my effort:

U189991: (-1+8)*((((9+9)/9)+1)!) = 42

A slightly cleaner computer-found solution
sqrt( (1+8+9)*(99-1) )

A slightly messier computer-found solution:

1+8+sqrt(9)+sqrt(9)*(9+1)

this computer program... I take it it allows the very contentious Sqrt... Which basically just isn't allowed, as it adds a couple of extra digits to the connundrum... You can use ^(1/2) or ^.5 though....

Invtan is also contentious, although I have allowed it in the past....

My take on U189991....

Hmmm... Tricky.... This could take some time....


(-1+8)x (((9+9)/9)+1)! = 42

Which concurs with one of the other posters....

Hmm, I didn't know square root was contentious -- the page says 'preference not to use this'... my program tries to avoid using it if it can. Just not all that hard

It doesn't allow 6x9=42, though, which I've always thought was a real fudge

My program allows various operators to be selected, so I start off trying simple operators, then the dirtier ones if I have no luck.
(I also ignore 6x9 for the present).

Incidentally, my code (Java) is available on my new web page:

http://www.davidmorgan.org

If yer interested.

As mentioned elsewhere, it seems to work with decent Java renditions (e.g. Opera, and probly Netscape) but not IE ( a strike for us MSphobes!)...

Also sqrt should really only be used if everything else fails - and that includes invtan...

It was only contentious as I've had a few "discussions" about this in the past...

Ah, well, I was referring to the non-applet versions... the applet version was hacked together since that post

Yeah, bit of a pain with it not working in IE... I spent several hours tearing my hair out over it (luckily(?) while I'm at home there are windows systems to actually test it on)... to absolutely no avail.

Hmmmmm, that reminds me... I need to find JavaScript to put on my site to complain if you're using IE

That'd be good, but could it tell the difference between Opera pretending it was IE and IE?

Good point... nope

Ah well... *checks own browser*... hmm, mine was being IE... ah well, so much for that idea...

On the other hand, since 80-90% are going to be using IE anyway, it will be right *most* of the time if it just assumes you're using IE

Yup, mores the pity!