One of my favourite books was written by the late Douglas Adams and is called “The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” It has been turned into a movie, a television series and a radio series. At this point, I must issue a spoiler warning. Part of the story is searching for the answer to the ultimate question which is, “What is the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything?” A giant computer eventually comes up with the answer.
It is 42!
Please do not ask why because for many years, this was one of the commonest questions put to Adams. “Why did you choose 42?” His answers did not really give a definite reason. Because of his sense of humour, he would sometimes say “There was no reason at all.” On other occasions he would remark that he chose an arbitrary number which was “Unthreatening and that it was safe to take this number home to meet your parents.”
As is often the case with these things, fans of the book thought there must be a deeper meaning behind the choice of 42. They came up with some reasons which stretch credulity to its limits. For example, some said it was a play on words to the song “Tea for Two.” They twisted it to read “For Tea, Two.” I think they should get out more!
Another theory involves John Cleese, one of the members of the Monty Python team who, in the 1980s had a management training video company called Video Arts. I remember this company well as in those days, I worked in the same industry making similar films. But one thing I did not know was that at the time Douglas Adams was an extra in some of the videos. In fact, in one about training bank tellers, Cleese eventually comes up with an answer to the numbers he was having difficulty with. It was, of course, 42 which he shouted out. At that moment, Douglas Adams walks across the set in the background. I think this is more believable than “Tea for Two.”
Finally, some more math-minded fans worked out that 9 x 6 = 42 as long as you are working to a base of 13. But when confronted with this, Douglas Adams is reported as answering “I don’t write jokes in base 13!”
John Pullen 