While it may not be significant to base 13, the number 42 is a significant number in binary code, where it is represented as 101010. While we can do little more than speculate, many have noted significant representations of the number 42 outside of the Guide to the Galaxy that may (or may not) shed further light on the meaning of life. Others have dismissed it as making no sense whatsoever. This has led many to search for representations of the number 42 in order to unearth any hidden meaning the number might possess. In some Spanish-speaking countries, there is a phrase that goes, '42 es la respuesta a la pregunta final' or '42 is the answer to the final question.'

In this case, instead of representing a physical object, the number 42 is the actual answer to the question, 'What is the meaning of life?' However, in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 42 is Deep Thought's answer to 'the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.' Deep Thought is a fictional supercomputer built for that very purpose in the book. The number 42 is not a particularly significant number in base 13. The number 42 from Douglas Adams' 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' represents all meaning ('the meaning of life, the universe, and everything') as determined by the fictional supercomputer Deep Thought. It should be known however that Base 13 is not used in any practical situation. It uses 13 digits to represent numbers.ĭigits for base 13 include 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, X, E and T or 0-9, A, B and C. What is base 13 and how is it related to the number 42?īase 13 (otherwise known as a tri- decimal or tre-decimal) is a positional number system that holds 13 as its base. A faint and distant voice then says: 'Base thirteen!'.Arthur: 'Six by nine? Forty-two? You know, I've always felt that there was something fundamentally wrong with the Universe.'.A caveman lays out the following sentence in Scrabble stones: 'What do you get if you multiply six by nine?'.However, its actual significance is open to interpretation.Ī BBC News radio script based on Adams' book introduces this concept with the following lines: In Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 42 is the number from which all meaning ('the meaning of life, the universe, and everything') can be derived. What is 42 (h2g2, meaning of life, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)?