> On 3 November 1993, he (Douglas Adams) gave this answer on alt.fan.douglas-adams: > > The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number

> On 3 November 1993, he (Douglas Adams) gave this answer on alt.fan.douglas-adams: > > The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought '42 will do' I typed it out. End of story. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrases_from_The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Why_the_number_42 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrases_from_The_Hitchhiker's_...?