Those of you who have read Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy” know that the answer is to “the meaning of life, the universe, and everything” is 42.
So what does that have do with today? Well when the date is written 10/10/10 and if you convert the date to binary number 101010 then the answer in base 10 is 42.
Okay, so what else equal 42? Well at one time, the America's Cup yachts had to meet the specification: ((length at waterline) + (square root of sail area) + (cube root of displacement)) / 1.3579 = 42. Why did they pick the number 42… well they read Adam’s book.
And why did they pick the distance of a marathon as 42 kilometers? It is kind of an odd number in miles it is 26 miles. I could see 25 miles or 40K, but why 42? Did some one have a sense of humor and used 42 from the Hitchhiker Guide?
When students ask me random questions I always blurt out 42... then I have to explain.
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