FearfulSymmetry: But what is everything? 42 is hardly a sensible answer. The much bigger trial is finding out what 42 means. :P
ddickinson: But surly you would need the questions to know what the answers mean. What good would it be having an answer book and not knowing which question each answer goes to?
Hmm...
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 13, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat on my desk, stared in to the garden and thought "42 will do". I typed it out. End of story.
And more importantly:
In fact it's the sort of number that you could without any fear introduce to your parents.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Douglas Adams ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
