What is the meaning of 42?

Answer 1

40 + 2 = 42

Answer 2

Yeah, a lot of people are familiar with the Hitchhiker's reference. There is a _little_ bit more to it though.

Remember that famous coincidence with the Arthur C. Clarke book/movie "2001"? The computer was named HAL. But if you add one letter, HAL becomes IBM.

42 also has an interesting coincidence. Douglas Adams fans know it as the answer to "life, the universe and everything." But computer geeks (especially the old-school ones) also know 42 as the ASCII code for the asterisk or * symbol. And in many operating systems including Windows and unix, the * is the wildcard symbol, meaning it stands for everything. For example, the search term for all Word documents would be "*.doc". So while 42 may or may not be life and the universe, it does indeed seem to be the answer of everything.

Answer 3

To cut a long story short, the answer is from the Hitch hikers Guide to the Galaxy.

What happens is this;
A group of super-beings from a different galaxy want to know the meaning of life and everything. They created the Earth as a super-computer and set it working. After millions of years a woman sitting at a cafe in Paris (France) comes up with the answer, it is 42. However before she can explain her reasoning, the Earth is destroyed by another Alien race to make way for a 'super space highway' !!

That's why no one knows why the meaning of life is 42, but at least we know that it is the meaning of life.

Answer 4

Its the answer to all questions and the meaning of life and everything after the super computer gave to after it jurned for 10,000 years on hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, watch out for the galatic highway construction and the earths demise
those hwy workers are union and just sit around not telling us about the big demo project of earth waht bad guys maybe a non union worker would tell us its where the planned hwy is to be

Answer 5

It is the answer to the ultimate Question, per Douglas Adams series hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The ultimate question turns out to be, "What do you get when you multiply 6 by 9?" . " Always have thought something was basically odd with the universe, any way." Says the protagonist, to end the series.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Answer_to_Life,_the_Universe,_and_Everything

Answer 6

IN the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe, it is the answer the computer spit out after years of calculating. The only problem was that by the time the answer was available, the question had long since been forgotten. Pax - C

Answer 7

It is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything.

The question is: "What do you get if you multiply six by nine?"

Ford Prefect took the apparent absurdity of this to mean that the universe was fundamentally c-cked up.

"We apologise for the inconvenience."

Answer 8

Life.

Answer 9

It is the Universal Answer. It is the fundamental answer to the secret of the Universe. It is the answer to all.

Answer 10

Life, the universe, and everything.