Hi --- The arbitrary constant was made popular by Douglas Adams in
the mid-1970s radio series ``A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy'' (a
trilogy in 4 parts) --- however it does have a basis in the standard
model of physics --- a paper in Phys.Rev. of the early 1970s
described the unification of the Electro-Weak and Strong nuclear
forces --- the arbitrary constant (of nearly) 42 appears in the
calculations. I forget the original paper but if you get hold of
Frank Close ``The Cosmic Onion'' a graph reproduces the result. I met
Douglas Adams once at a book signing and asked him how he got hold of
the Phys.Rev. paper so early. Technically he should have written that
``42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything except for
gravity and a few other arbitrary constants''
Adams was interested in computing --- I think his reaction to being
told about functional programming was to wonder what non-functional
programming might be.
Phil
On 1 Feb 2008, at 14:03, Loup Vaillant wrote:
I have read quite a lot of Haskell papers, lately, and noticed that
the number 42 appeared quite often, in informal tutorials as well as
in very serious research papers. No wonder Haskell is the Answer to
The Great Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything, but I would
like to know who started this, and when.
Google wasn't much help, and I can't believe it's coincidence --hence
this email. I hope I didn't opened some Pandora box. :-)
Cheers,
Loup
_______________________________________________
Haskell-Cafe mailing list
Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org
http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Email
Security System.
This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Email
Security System.
_______________________________________________
Haskell-Cafe mailing list
Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org
http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
