42 - Number of Gods

Background

42 in the Real World

42% of voters aged 18-24 voted nationwide in 1992.
42 is the listed seating occupancy of the Weinerschnitzel's in Livermore, California. Never mind they've got only 40 chairs.
The first time I played the UNIX game "bog" (boggle), after 6 rounds my average score to the nearest integer was 42% of the words per round. I haven't played 9 consecutive rounds yet. :-)
We don't think that 42 is actually the number of known gods in the universe, but if you include Hank, the god of parking, the number of gods is definitely divisible by 42.

42 in Math

42, in base thirteen, is six times nine.
The sum of 4 and 2 is six, and their average is the square root of 9.
The sum of all the numbers less than 42 which divide 42 is -- you guessed it -- six times nine. (1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 14, 21)
42 is an abundant number (the sum of its divisors is greater than it).
If you make 6 planar cuts on a cube, the maximum number of pieces you can end up with is 42.
42, despite being double a Fibonacci number, cannot be written as the sum of six -- or of nine -- distinct Fibonacci numbers.
For any integer n > 4, 42 expressed in base n is never prime.
Forty-two is the product of a perfect number, 6, and a number traditionally considered lucky (some might say perfect), 7. (Note: A "perfect" number is one whose divisors add up to it. 6 = 1 + 2 + 3.)
If the word FORTY-TWO is written out, and the letters are added up (A=1 B=2 ...), the sum is a square, and a Fibonacci number -- 144.
42 is smack dab in the middle of the 6th prime pair (41-43), and is the sum of the 8th and 9th primes. (Six and nine again!)

The Thorpe Contributions

42 has been hailed as The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, and I for one happen to feel that this is true. Why do I think this? Well I'm glad you asked...

Odd Number Theory Facts

42 divides ( n^7 - n ) evenly for any whole number n.
42 = phi(43) = phi(2 * 43) (where phi is the Euler phi function)

More to come!

Physics

By using 42 as the Hubble constant, you can calculate the age of the universe to be approximately 23 billion years, which is consistent with experimental data.

This portion contributed by:
Michael Thorpe, mike@pedantic.org

There's another thought-provoking page on 42 inside the lair of Matt Messerman.

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