42

42 is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

In fact, 42 is the answer to the question "What do you get when you multiply six by nine?" as revealed in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. This is flawed, however, because Arthur Dent, the man who reveals this question through an irregular set of Scrabble tiles (his feat is impossible with a standard set of Scrabble tiles, as the question he pulled out has 4 Ys), is not actually part of the natural matrix of the computer that is the Earth; rather, he is a descendant of the Golgafrinchans (as is every other human). It is worth noting that 6 times 9 does indeed equal 42, in base 13. However, this was not intended by Douglas Adams, who responded to an inquiry regarding the subject with the line "I may be a pretty sad case, but I don't write jokes in base 13."

42 Factoids

• Try Googling "answer to life, the universe, and everything."
  • And in the book "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," the supercomputer says that 42's the meaning of life...
• Saying that something does not equal 42 is one of the gravest of insults.
• 42 must never be divided by 0. (Just shows that the meaning of life is undefined.)
• 42 is the number of roads a man must walk down before you call him a man.
• When light hits water at a 42 degree angle, a rainbow is created
• If one were to be a Seven-year satan and double session every year, they would be in CTY for a total of 42 weeks.
• 42 is the number of gallons of oil in each barrel.
• Elvis Presley, one of Americas most important cultural icons, died at the age of 42.
• 42 is of great traditional importance to CTY; it is involved in things such as 42-second hugs, 42-person orgies, 42-player Blammo games, 42 recursions, buying 42 bottles of Strawberry Kiwi Lemonade, 42 shots of cold water to the face, etc.
• 42 is equal to 1337% of π (.003-ish off ... )
• 42 is equal to 6 times 9 in base 13
• Fastest way through the center of the Earth is 42 minutes. Hollow tube of free-fall acceleration coupled by an equal length of deceleration.
• In NYC, the Grand Central Terminal, Times Square, New York Public Library and Chrysler Building are on 42nd street
• Using the encoding A=1, B=2, C=3, etc., the sum of the codes of the letters in the words "BIG BANG" is 42 (From Wikipedia)
• Given 27 same-size cubes whose nominal values progress from 1 to 27, a 3×3×3 magic cube can be constructed such that every row, column, and corridor, and every diagonal passing through the center, is composed of 3 cubes whose sum of values is 42.
• The atomic number of molybdenum.
• Facebook chat has a special emoticon that can be used on its chat feature. When a person types ":42:" on it, the number appears white in a red box. This is not possible with any other number.
• In Japanese culture, the number 42 is considered unlucky because the numerals when pronounced separately — "shi ni" (four two) — sound like the phrase, "unto death".[12]
• The Gutenberg Bible is also known as the "42-line Bible", as the book contained 42 lines per page.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has 42 illustrations
• The White Queen announces her age as "one hundred and one, five months and a day", which - if the best possible date is assumed for the action of Through the Looking-Glass - gives a total of 37,044 days. With the further (textually unconfirmed) assumption that both Queens were born on the same day their combined age becomes 74,088 days, which is 42 x 42 x 42. Some commentators have asserted that this is deliberate on Carroll's part.
• "42" is an episode of Doctor Who, set in real time lasting approximately 42 minutes.
• "Watson" the IBM supercomputer, has 42 "threads" in its avatar.
• The number of kilometers in a marathon.
• The number of laws of cricket
• The number of spots (or pips, circular patches or pits) on a pair of standard six-sided dice
• Fictional comic book superhero Miles Morales is bitten by a genetically altered spider with a red 42 marked on its abdomen. Morales later assumes the role of Spider-Man as a result of the bite and following the death of Peter Parker in the Ultimate Marvel universe from Marvel Comics. Morales also wins a coveted spot in a prestigious charter school after his number (42) is chosen during a lottery.
• Given that it takes 3 minutes to make one cup noodle cup, if one were to make 14 cup noodles, it would take approximately 42 minutes to make all those cup noodles!
• The number of F2L cases in the Fridrich Speedsolving method.
  • • • • • • • • in 2012 Bobby Woody released a song on soundcloud (ft. Joey Penn<passionfruit speach>)and referenced the answer during the movie quote in his CTY themed song "The Answer"*********
• We've got another page based on the number 42 right here.

See also: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

• It's double 21 (blackjack) ... just terrible, I know.
• The answer to "How many CTYers can you cram in an ISO?"
• Double the answer to "How many CTYers can you cram in a dining booth"
• The number of coffee holders I can smuggle from the cafeteria in my pants.
• roughly the number of songs played per CTY dance (according to Vivian Feldblyum)
• In binary, 42 = 101010
• Light takes 10^-42 seconds to travel the diameter of a proton.

Douglas Adams himself asserts that 42 was chosen randomly:

    The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my       desk, stared into the garden and thought '42 will do' I typed it out. End of story.