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

Do you follow me?

If you place the '2' beneath the '86', which is said to come first?
I'd give it to you, anyway.

I can't tell if I am missing your point; it appears to me that I get your drift, but it could even if I were not.

You say it's easy to derive 42; inspired by that I try another way and get one, but it's not entirely tidy. You have come up with several versions based on your U number; would you like to try one for 208656?

Apologies -- simulpost!

The trouble is with formatting the numbers in GuideML for the sake of the "about me" entry. You were saying you can't get a root -- did you mean a square-root symbol? There is one that you can type in (not in conversations) and it is

√

Thanks for the &radic. I will try out your number, but not tonight.
One rather pessimistic thought though, is that, without knowing the solutions you have found, I am unlikely to discover a new line, destined, at best, to follow your steps..

I nearly forgot to ask you. Does one need a licence to use '&radic' in conversations?

I've been disassembling you, digit by digit, to find the following...
anything more intricate would either be beyond me or take long enough
for me to wonder what the hell I was doing!

Formulae follow...

( 2+ (0x8) ) x6 + (5x6) = 42

( (2x0) +8 -6 +5 ) x6 = 42

( -2 +0 +8 +6 -5) x6 = 42

( 2+ (0x86) +5 ) x6 = 42

(-2 +0 +8) + (6x5) +6 = 42

I seem to remember that any figure, elevated (or diminished) to the
noughtth power equals 1; if not, the rest may be unsound....

( (2 to the noughtth x 8) -6 +5) x6 = 42

(2+(0to the 8th power)) x6 + (5x6) = 42

Well thank you! All the ones I've found are in this conversation so all yours are new. And indeed for any n, n^0=1 (handy up-arrow that) so I think I'll adopt (2^0*8-6+5)*6=42 as being the most easily read, assuming that raising to a power is done in precedence to multiplication, which I believe is the convention.

Now what were we talking about . . . ah yes; life from the point of view of a chess piece . . .

I just wanted to record, in a suitable place, that this morning, at approximately 01.23hrs, I completed a fairly simple proceedure to obtain the total of 42, via the 9 letter anagram thread. I achieved this by posting a hat trick of 'FOURTEENS', under distinct guises, naturally. There was no applause.

Just to add, that the time of the above achievement has been rounded up to 01.25hrs on the 12th of December. So that the following applies: 1+2+5+12+22 = 42!

I hope you mean the 22nd of December. Otherwise . . .

My mistake. It was earlier today, and I clearly haven't come down since.

.....'otherwise.....' .... it would be 32............... the number of your latest posting here.
It's all right, Numberman etc, I know it's hard to find words....
awesome, really.......really awesome! I mean, one can almost see how it all comes together; the world, the universe and all that...and just in time for Christmas......
Now, what was I doing.....................

Should we get back to our chess game?

This poem is one that I've been taking out and revising for over ten years. Some lines have remained unchanged since the first draft, others vary. I'm still not sure I'm finished with it. The second couplet might go in second last instead.

What poem? Oh . . . sorry.