Best statistics question ever

I do apologise if any of you have a hangover this morning, this might not be for you.

This is hilariously cruel. And yes, I am a geek.

http://flowingdata.com/2011/10/28/best-statistics-question-ever/

 

I can't stop looking at it.

 

86.4% of all statistics are made up.

 

I don't believe its possible to 'choose' something at random as the words prescribe......
Alternatively, my answer would be 75%

 

it has to be 42 as that is the answer to everything

 

Only 7 x 6, matey. But that's what you get for a planet full of mice.

 

It is a paradox, and this is probably why I avoided doing logic at university. (That, and the fact the lecturer was a pervert.) And if it's not a paradox it is at the very least circular in logic or a very badly formed question.

I don't think can I even articulate the circularity of it though.

 

"What do you get if you multiply six by nine"?

"Six by nine. Forty two."
"That's it. That's all there is."
"I always thought something was fundamentally wrong with the universe"

Six times nine is, of course, fifty-four. 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.