42 (number)

Mathematics

42 is a pronic number, an abundant number as well as a highly abundant number, a sphenic number, a practical number, and a Catalan number.

The 42-sided tetracontadigon is the largest such regular polygon that can only tile a vertex alongside other regular polygons, without tiling the plane.

42 is the magic constant of the smallest non-trivial magic cube, a 3 \times 3 \times 3 cube with entries of 1 through 27, where every row, column, corridor, and diagonal passing through the center sums to forty-two.

42 can be expressed as the sum of three cubes: (80,435,758,145,817,515)3 + (12,602,123,297,335,631)3 + (-80,538,738,812,075,974)3 .

Wisdom literature, religion, and philosophy

• Abrahamic religions
  • 42 is the number with which God creates the Universe in Kabbalistic tradition. In Kabbalah, the most significant name is that of the En Sof (also known as "Ein Sof", "Infinite" or "Endless"), who is above the Sefirot (sometimes spelled "Sephirot"). The Forty-Two-Lettered Name contains four combined names which are spelled in Hebrew letters. While there are obvious links between the Forty-Two Lettered Name of the Babylonian Talmud and the Kabbalah's 42 Lettered Name, they are probably not identical because of the Kabbalah's emphasis on numbers. The Kabbalah also contains a 45 Lettered Name and a 72 Lettered Name.

Popular culture

''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' ===

Main article: Phrases from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy#The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42

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. Unfortunately, no one knows what the question is. 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" 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, , contains 42 chapters. According to , 42 is the street address of Stavromula Beta.

In 1994, Adams created the 42 Puzzle, a game based on the number 42. 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." Once typed (all in lowercase), the calculator answers with the number 42.

Jackie Robinson

• The jersey number of Jackie Robinson, which is the only number retired by all Major League Baseball teams. Although the number was retired in 1997, Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees, the last professional baseball player to wear number 42, continued to wear it until he retired at the end of the 2013 season. As of the 2014 season, no player ever again wore the number 42 in Major League Baseball except on Jackie Robinson Day (April 15), when all uniformed personnel (players, managers, coaches, and umpires) wear the number.

Other

In Japanese culture, the number 42 is considered unlucky because the numerals when pronounced separately—shi ni (four two)—sound like the word "dying", like the Latin word "mori".

References

References

1. {{Cite OEIS
2. {{Cite OEIS. A005101. Abundant numbers (sum of divisors of m exceeds 2m).
3. {{Cite OEIS. A002093. Highly abundant numbers
4. {{Cite OEIS. A005153. Practical numbers
5. {{Cite OEIS. A000108. Catalan numbers
6. (November 1977). "Tilings by Regular Polygons". Taylor & Francis, Ltd..
7. Dallas, Elmslie William. (1855). "The Elements of Plane Practical Geometry". John W. Parker & Son, West Strand.
8. Jardine, Kevin. "Shield - a 3.7.42 tiling".
9. Andrews, William Symes. (1960). "Magic Squares and Cubes". [[Dover Publications]].
10. {{Cite OEIS. A027441. a(n) equal to (n^4 + n)/2 (Row sums of an n X n X n magic cube, when it exists).
11. (2021). "On a question of Mordell". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
12. "In A Beginning...Quantum Cosmology and Kabbalah".
13. "The Prayer of the Kabbalist".
14. "Mathematical Fiction: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979)".
15. (November 11, 2011). "17 amazing Google Easter eggs".
16. Niiya, Brian. Japanese American history: an A-to-Z reference from 1868 to the present. Facts on File, Inc., 1993, p. 352