42 (number)

that is equal to the number of sets of four distinct positive integers

cube with entries of 1 through 27, where every row, column, corridor, and diagonal passing through the center sums to forty-two.

[14] The number 42 is, in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything", calculated by an enormous supercomputer named Deep Thought over a period of 7.5 million years.

Thus, to calculate the Ultimate Question, a special computer the size of a small planet was built from organic components and named "Earth".

The Ultimate Question "What do you get when you multiply six by nine"[21] is found by Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect in the second book of the series, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

This appeared first in the radio play and later in the novelization of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The fourth book in the series, the novel So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, contains 42 chapters.

According to the novel Mostly Harmless, 42 is the street address of Stavromula Beta.

Adams says he picked the number simply as a joke, with no deeper meaning.

Google also has a calculator easter egg when one searches "the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything."