More on The Ultimate Question

In 'The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy', there were, of course, a number of suggestions made as to what The Ultimate Question might have been. "How many roads must a man walk down?" for instance.

However, this - "What do you get if you multiply six by nine?" - was the only one that appeared to have any possible authority, since it was not merely a guess but a seemingly 'significant' coincidence - purportedly unlocking the secret of The Question buried deep in Arthur Dent's brain, via a game of Scrabble played to while away the time when he and his friends found themselves trapped on a prehistoric Earth (at the end of the first radio series, the second book).

Many of HHGG's nerdier fans bombarded poor Douglas Adams with mail pointing out that this 'Question' does in fact yield the right Answer (i.e. 42) - in base 13.

Adams always maintained that this was pure coincidence, and protested wearily, "I do not write jokes in base 13."