Item Specification: Bambleweeny 57 Sub-Meson Brain & Finite Improbability GeneratorCopy Anchor Link

"The principle of generating small amounts of finite improbability by simply hooking the logic circuits of a Bambleweeny 57 Sub-Meson Brain to an atomic vector plotter suspended in a strong Brownian Motion producer (say a nice hot cup of tea) were of course well understood — and such generators were often used to break the ice at parties by making all the molecules in the hostess's undergarments leap simultaneously one foot to the left, in accordance with the Theory of Indeterminacy."

— The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Chapter 10

The Bambleweeny 57 Sub-Meson Brain is the core logic unit used in constructing a Finite Improbability Generator. Long before the discovery of the Infinite Improbability Drive, physicists well understood how to generate small amounts of finite improbability by hooking the logic circuits of a Bambleweeny 57 Sub-Meson Brain to an atomic vector plotter suspended in a strong Brownian Motion producer—most notably a nice hot cup of tea.

Party Ice-Breakers & The Outrage of Respectable PhysicistsCopy Anchor Link

1. The Theory of Indeterminacy: In social settings across the Galaxy, finite improbability generators powered by a Bambleweeny 57 Sub-Meson Brain were frequently used to break the ice at parties by making all the molecules in the hostess's undergarments leap simultaneously one foot to the left, in strict accordance with the Theory of Indeterminacy.
2. Scientific Resentment: Many respectable physicists declared that they weren't going to stand for this—partly because they considered it a debasement of science, but mostly because they didn't get invited to those sort of parties.

Role in Creating the Infinite Improbability GeneratorCopy Anchor Link

When respectable physicists repeatedly failed to build a machine capable of generating the infinite improbability field needed to flip a spaceship across the mind-paralysing distances between the furthest stars—and grumpily announced that such a machine was virtually impossible—a student left to sweep up the lab after a particularly unsuccessful party used a Bambleweeny 57-powered finite improbability generator to solve the problem:

• Reasoning that a virtual impossibility must logically be a finite improbability, the student worked out the exact improbability figure of an Infinite Improbability Generator, fed that figure into the finite improbability generator, gave it a fresh cup of really hot tea, and turned it on—startling himself by creating the long-sought-after golden Infinite Improbability Generator out of thin air.