Yes! It's TRUE!! For a limited time only, you can pick any base and work out what number the string "42" represents in it. That number will be even!!!1!!1!

Offer void where prohibited by law. No endorsement of base changing practices should be construed. Valid only for bases >=5.

First of all, realize that "even" is mathematically a concept independent of bases. It simply means you get an integer when you divide by 2 (or by 10 in the case of binary.) But then, that doesn't allow this sort of fun useless trivia, so let's assume for the purposes of this node that ending in an even digit makes the number even.

Anyway, there are quite a few bases in which 42 is not "even" - 11, 13 (come on, how can you do 42-related trivia without considering base 13?), and any odd base from 23 to 41.

There is only one number that ends in an even digit in any base, and it's 2.


Oh. Hmm. I just realized that ariels is converting the OTHER way, from base n to base 10. In this case, the number represented must be even, yes. You're just taking 4 of something and adding 2. No place for anything odd to figure into it. So any set of even digits will be an even number, when converting from any base to any other.

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