42

         (Originally posted on May 17, 2007 - 01:28)

         42, also written as "forty-two", is a number that, if you are counting correctly, comes after 41 and before 43. It is made of two digits, both of which are even numbers. 42 is also an integer and natural number.

         According to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, researchers from a pan-dimensional, hyper-intelligent race of beings constructed the second greatest computer in all of time and space, Deep Thought, to calculate the Ultimate Answer to the Great Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. After seven and a half million years of pondering the question, Deep Thought provides the answer: "forty-two." 

         The reaction:

         "Forty-two!" yelled Loonquawl. "Is that all you've got to show for seven and a half million years' work?"

         "I checked it very thoroughly," said the computer, "and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question is."

         There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something more bizarrely inexplicable.

         There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

         Curiosities about 42

         - The atomic number of molybdenum

         - The number of teeth wolves and dogs (canines) have.

         - Scientists calculated that the Hubble Constant, the rate at which the universe expands, is 42.

         - The light leaving a rainbow is spread over a wide angle, with a maximum intensity around 42°

         - The number of minutes it would take a theoretical "gravity train" to travel to any point on earth.

         - In one Grand Unified Theory, the Georgi-Glashow model, the inverse of the coupling constant is approximately 42.

         - 10! (10 factorial) seconds is exactly 42 days.

         - In Geometry, a solid with 42 sides is called a tetracontakaidigon

         - In binary, 42 is 101010.

 

         - In the Messier catalog of astronomical objects, object M42, is a magnitude 5.0 diffuse nebula in the constellation Orion, also known as the Orion Nebula

         - In the New General Catalogue object NGC 42, is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Pegasus

         - The planet Uranus' north and south poles face the sun 42 years before switching, (example) the north pole experiences 42 years of summer and 42 years of winter and vice-versa.

         - In January 2005, Asteroid 2001 DA42 was given the name Asteroid Douglasadams, named for the author Douglas Adams that popularized the number 42 and died in 2001. With even his initials in the provisional designation, Brian G. Marsden, the director of the Minor Planet Center and the secretary for the naming committee, said, "This was sort of made for him, wasn't it?"

         - The number of generations from Abraham to Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew

         - According to the Book of Revelations, 'The Beast' will hold the Earth for 42 months.

         - There are 42 lines on each page of a Gutenberg Bible.

         - In the common computing language codification, ASCII, the decimal code '42' represents an asterisk - ' * ' - which is another common computing symbol used to represent a wildcard or an indicator of "everything"

         - The code number for the Microsoft .NET platform is 42, since it is their answer to "The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything". It also happens to be the building number that the Microsoft .NET CLR is built in. Coincidentally, it was the 42nd release build which was ready to ship as the final version 2 .NET framework, and so is present in the file version (2.0.50727.42) of every binary file

         - 42 is the default number of days a password can be used for before expiring in Windows Server 2003.

         - If you search "answer to life, the universe and everything" on Google, the calculator function will display '42'

         - The number of hours that the potion caused Juliet to sleep for (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act IV, Scene 1, line 105)

         - If you rearrange 'tea for two' you get 'for tea two'

         - In Japanese, 4 (shi) and 2 (ni) are together pronounced like "going to die". Because of that, in Japan, 42 is considered as a disastrous number

         - There were originally 42 columns and 42 figures from Greek myth in the Parthenon

         - The age at which Elvis Presley died

         42 also happen to be the number of years that I complete today.