What is this 42 and the meaning of life thing?

[Jonezy]

LOOK...What is this 42 thing? and what does it have to do with the meaning of life!!??.... JUST ONE PERSON tell me everything about this 42........PLEASE!!!!!!!

[shybearuk]

Read the Hitch-Hikers' Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. It's far more well explained in there than I could ever do justice to. ;o)

[sft42]

I could.......but the previous answer says it all....no matter how much we try to explain it will all become clear when you read the book, which is a very good read.

[OnlyMe]

It's just a joke by the book's author. Nothing to get worked up about!

[JohnPPotts]

In brief: A race of hyper intelligent being wanted to know the answer to "Life, the Universe and Everything", so they built a giant computer (Deep Thought) to calculate it. 7.5 million years later it came up with the answer "42". But do read the book.

[Waterwolf]

Yes, according to Hitchhiker's, 42 is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything. Unfortunately, no one knows what the question is. You really should read the book.

[Kit]

The question was actually, "What do you get if you multiply six by nine".

[Kit]

Drat, just given it away. But read the book anyway - it's good fun getting there.

[sddsddean]

Ah, but the arrival of the Golgafrincham B Ark put a bug in the program Kit, so is that the answer? BTW, try and get hold of the original radio series Jonezy (where it all started); miles better than the books.