Is this the Lee Valley April Fools Tool/Product?

I am sorry, I can't tell. But the product description concludes with this statement,

"So why call it the Mk.XXXXII? Well - we put a lot of deep thought into the design, and what else could we call a jig that's clearly the shop equivalent of the Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything."

That may be a clue.

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Reply to
Lee Michaels
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Reply to
J. Clarke

"Expertly Made In Magrathea" would have been another nice addition.

I always look forward to what Robin and his mirthmakers dreamt up on April 1.

Reply to
Robatoy

Good catch on the Douglas Adams reference. I missed it the first time around myself.

Reply to
HDRDTD

Reply to
B A R R Y

But that would be highly improbable.

Reply to
B A R R Y

At the edge of the universe all things are equally improbable.

Reply to
Bill in Detroit

Kolmogorov's zero-one law (yes, look it up) says that they're not. As most "things" (including breakfast at Milliways) would thus qualify as "tail events" for Kolmogorov, they're instead either almost certain, or almost impossible (i.e. their probability is either zero or one, but not intermediate).

Sadly it's often possible to apply this law, but rarely to tell just which probability they have.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

"Once you've lapped your chisels and blades to a common thickness (a trivial one-time exercise)," Sure, it's a straightforward task that you only have to do once...for about a month straight!

R
Reply to
RicodJour

Just to be annoying, let me point out that the model -- more correctly

-- should me the MK.XLII

It has a probability rank> >

Reply to
LarryLev

They beat you to it. From the "more information" page: :P.S. We know that 42 would correctly be written "XLII" in Roman numerals, :but thought that "XXXXII" just worked better in this case...!

Reply to
alexy

:>Just to be annoying, let me point out that the model -- more correctly :>-- should me the MK.XLII :>

: They beat you to it. From the "more information" page: : :P.S. We know that 42 would correctly be written "XLII" in Roman numerals, : :but thought that "XXXXII" just worked better in this case...!

Actually ... both notations are as correct as the other. The substractive notation (IX instead of VIIII, for example) got accepted very late in the game. And the non-subtractive got used occasionally even into the

20th century.

-- Andy Barss

Reply to
Andrew Barss

When you consider that there were many times being chiseled in granite an "XI" is a helluva lot easier to chisel than a "VIIII"

Just some food for thought -

Reply to
Vic Baron

Or even IX if you didn't want to wait a couple of years!

But the notion that Roman numeral use is not carved in stone (if you'll pardon the pun) but still evolving into the XXth century is strange.

>
Reply to
alexy

Non-subtractive is still standard for clockfaces (for IIII) even in the

21st century. I believe this is owing to Henry VIII, and the clock at Hampton Court
Reply to
Andy Dingley

Recalling my 4th grade math class, when using Roman numerals, the rule is no more that 3 of a given character, thus 4 is IV and not IIII. As far as I personally know, the rule never changed. Just because someone in the 20th century used it, doesn't mean it's correct. So 42 can accurately only be written as XLII since XXXXII exceeds the 3 character rule.

Reply to
WHWood

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