I got it... "42"

[trwalters001]

There is a 2-book story out there, written by the incomparable Dan Simmons... One book is Ilium and the other is Odyssey. Killer story. Anyway, the bad guys develop a mini-black-hole and launch it. They kill the rocket so the black hole falls to earth. It then begins consuming all the matter (and light) in its path as it falls. Going to the center of the Earth and out the other side, continuing on up into near-space, where it slows and stops. It then begins falling again. Only this time, the Earth has rotated, so the black hole punches a new hole. Ad infinitum. Soon it's Earth-Swiss-Cheese! Yay!

[allthatwhichis]

You mean, "What's 6 times 8", don't you? (Dude - I know you've read THHGTTG...)

Adam

Only 6 or 7 times, but not this year... yet.

Page 204...
"All right," said Benjy. "What do you get if you multiply 6 by 7?"

"No, no, too literal, too factual," said Frankie, "wouldn't sustain the punter's interest."

Again they thought...

[James Lehman]

That just proves that gravity sucks.

[buffo]

Carl Sagan posultated something similar to this in his book, "Cosmos". Except he was talking about a lump of neutron star matter. (Approximate density, 1 mountain per teaspoon!)

Adam

[heroic]

Of course, the hole would have to be curved because otherwise coriolis forces and mascons would make you hit the side- ouch!

[buffo]

Page 204...
"All right," said Benjy. "What do you get if you multiply 6 by 7?"

"No, no, too literal, too factual," said Frankie, "wouldn't sustain the punter's interest."

Again they thought...

I was referring to Deep Thought's *actual* question, which in the later books was revealed (via scrabble tiles) to Dent to be "What is 6 times 8". Since Arthur already knows the answer is 42 (which is not equal to 6 times 8), he concludes that there is something fundamentally wrong with the universe. (Brilliant!)

Hmmm... After a quick google search, however, it seems my memory has failed me. It's not "6 times 8", but rather "6 times 9". Crap.

It's not in the original HHG, but rather in the later book, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, where the ultimate question is revealed. But "What is 6 times 9" *IS* the ultimate question. (The one that Deep Thought labored over for 7.5 million years before returning the befuddling answer of 42.)

The "what is 6 times 7" question was never seriously posed as the ultimate question in the original HHG. It was more of a gag... (Thus the line "wouldn't sustain the punter's interest.")

Adam

[James Lehman]

Maybe it really means we have 42 years left.

Anyway you look at it we get energy from organic encapsulated carbon and turn it into CO2.

We are so screwed.

James.

[ajohnson30]

Bah, the correct answer was later proven to be "We apologize for the inconvenience".

[Lexat8]

What if you had a really looong tube and a mate pouring it in from where you jumped? Would the beer come past you several times before it got to yr mouth??

lex

[stanwax]

it probably would pass you a few times and by then it would be warm and flat - YUK

just drop the bottles and a bottle opener down the tube.

Rob