为什么重写equals时必须重写hashCode方法？

public boolean equals(Object anObject) {
    if (this == anObject) {
        return true;
    }
    if (anObject instanceof String) {
        String anotherString = (String)anObject;
        int n = count;
        if (n == anotherString.count) {
        char v1[] = value;
        char v2[] = anotherString.value;
        int i = offset;
        int j = anotherString.offset;
        while (n-- != 0) {
            if (v1[i++] != v2[j++])
            return false;
        }
        return true;
        }
    }
    return false;
    }

/*返回哈希码，String的哈希码计算方式为s[0]*31^(n-1) + s[1]*31^(n-2) + ... + s[n-1]*/
public int hashCode() {
    int h = hash;
    if (h == 0) {
        int off = offset;
        char val[] = value;
        int len = count;

            for (int i = 0; i < len; i++) {
                h = 31*h + val[off++];
            }
            hash = h;
        }
        return h;
    }