The significance of the number 42 often traces back to the mention of it in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In the book they built a huge super computer and asked it to work out the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. After the millions of years had gone by that it required to run this calculation, the computer had discovered that the answer is 42.

Since the publication of the book, 42 has grown, in a bit of a tongue-in-cheek way, to be a significant or important number, often abstracted in some way to add to the "significance" of a thing; or subtly slipped in to piece of pop-culture as an easter-egg to those in the 'know'.

Brady Haran of Numberphile explores this number further in the following video:

QUICK FACTS

• 42 in binary is 101010.

• In the movie Finding Nemo, the location of the fish tank where nemo is kept is at 42 Wallaby Way, Sidney.

• American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), 42 is the code for the asterisk symbol, which signifies a wildcard character on the keyboard.

• You are 42% more likely to achieve you goals if you write them down.

• The world’s first book printed with movable type is the Gutenberg Bible which has 42 lines per page.

• The optimum angle for white light to refract through water and thus form a rainbow is between 40.89 and 42 degrees.

• Two physical constants in the universe are the speed of light and the diameter of a proton. It takes light 10 to the minus 42nd power seconds to cross the diameter of a proton.

• The Titanic was travelling at a speed equivalent to 42km/hour when it collided with an iceberg.

• Toy Story character Buzz Lightyear’s spaceship is named 42.
  
  

  Coincidence? You decide!