Was “42” ever a Jeopardy clue? If so, I suspect that most readers of this blog would respond with “What is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything?” or maybe just “What is the meaning of life?”

But 42 is also the answer to remarkably many other questions. I don’t mean boring ones like “What is 6 × 9?” or “What is the atomic number of molydbenum?” (even if you spell it correctly, though nobody can do that without spellcheck); I mean ones that surprisingly occur here, there, and everywhere. Like “What was Jackie Robinson’s jersey number?”

Or “What is the only 2-digit number that cannot be expressed as the sum of three cubes?”

Actually, although the answer to that one used to be thought to be 42, it was eventually discovered that 42 equals…

Now why didn’t I think of that?

But the first place where I came across 42 was…

Well, it was not seeing that George W. Bush was president #42, nor that Juliet slept for 42 hours when she was thought to be dead. No, neither of these was the origin of my knowing about 42. Instead it was Lewis Carroll, best known as the author of the Alice books although he was mathematician Charles Dodgson in real life. In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, known more commonly (but incorrectly) as Alice in Wonderland, the king cites Rule 42: “All persons more than a mile high to leave the court.” 

Alice says, “…that’s not a regular rule: you invented it just now.”
“It’s the oldest rule in the book,” said the King.
“Then it ought to be Number One,” said Alice.

One more thing: are you still bothered by 6 × 9? Try it in base 13.

Categories: Life