<P> "Six by nine . Forty two ." </P> <P> "That's it . That's all there is ." </P> <P> "I always thought something was fundamentally wrong with the universe" </P> <P> Six times nine is, of course, fifty - four . The answer is deliberately wrong . The program on the "Earth computer" should have run correctly, but the unexpected arrival of the Golgafrinchans on prehistoric Earth caused input errors into the system--computing (because of the garbage in, garbage out rule) the wrong question--the question in Arthur's subconscious being invalid all along . </P>

Last line of hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy