42 - The answer to life, the universe, and everything

Yup, that's right. 42. The number is everywhere. We see it in literature, music, television, films, and even video games. But of course the most popular use of the number is found in "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" series as the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

Where did this number come from? Why 42? What inspiration led Douglas Adams to choose this number as the ultimate answer? Well, based on a quote by Mr. Adams himself, he just thought of it one day. Randomly. He needed a number for his literary progress with "Hitchhiker", he wanted a very ordinary, nothing special number, and that's what he came up with.

It started a movement.

The number now amazingly appears in so many places it almost boggles the mind. When I ask somebody about the number and they have no understanding of its significance, I must carefully suppress the urge to ask "what century (and/or planet) are you from again?"

My personal favorite is the way it is used in programming instruction manuals. I dare say there is [likely] not a single programming book that has bee made since 1980 that does not contain 42 at least once as an example for a variable or some other piece of code.

That is what this blog is about. Where do we see 42? Where does it show up? Why does it show up there? Does the individual(s) responsible for its use understand the significance of the number and where its popularity originated? Or is it just so ingrained within society now that it is a number that people naturally gravitate to when they need to come up with a random number for one purpose or another?

Also included will be some posts on some of the the mathematical trivia associated with the number 42. There are some rather interesting (well, interesting to me at least) properties of the number. Of course, there are some rather boring properties of the number as well, but we probably won't be bothered with addressing those particular facts.

Do you have some interesting knowledge regarding 42? Send me a post request and if it is worthy of discussion I will get it added. In the mean-time, enjoy the little trivia and discussions you find here about this amazingly ordinary number.