Ultimate Question (2024)

The Ultimate Question is the actual inquiry behind the Ultimate Answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything. The Ultimate Question was sought after the supercomputer Deep Thoughtrevealed the Ultimate Answer to be 42. When Deep Thought asked,Loonquawland Phouchgwere unable to say what the actual question was.

Hence, Deep Thought made the plans for the supercomputer Earth,that would solve the Question in ten million years. However, five minutes before it was due to be complete, the Vogons, under the orders ofGag Halfrunt, destroyed it to make a hyperspace bypass.

It was later revealed that part of the Earth supercomputer was compromised by the Golgafrinchans, whose arrival wiped out the population of humans on the planet.

Possible questions[]

The mice, who originally commissioned the Earth, needed something to say for their 5D chat show. Due to this, they attempted to form some possible questions as they were preparing to take Arthur's brain, such as the following:

  • Why?
  • Are we stronger than the elements?
  • What's yellow and dangerous?
  • What do you get when you multiply six by seven?[1]
  • How many Vogons does it take to change a lightbulb?[2]
  • How many roads must a man walk down? (The mice chose this Question as the one they would claim to be the correct one.)
  • Given the answer 42, what are all possible permutations of questions which give rise to this answer?

Having returned to the supercomputer Earth, albeit in a prehistoric stage, Ford Prefect got Arthur Dent to randomly pull Scrabble tiles out of a bag, revealing information in his unconscious (Marvin announced that he could see the Question imprinted in Arthur's brainwaves). This resulted in the Question: "What do you get if you multiply six by nine?"[3]

Behind the scenes[]

  • It has been noted that in base 13, 6 multiplied by 9 will equal 42. Douglas Adams later joked, "I don't make jokes in base 13."[4]
  • The "how many roads" question is from the lyrics to Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind.

Notes and references[]

  1. This possible Question appeared in the Douglas Adams novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as well as the for-television adaptation.
  2. This possible Question only appeared in the 2005 movie.
  3. From the Douglas Adams book The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and Fit The Sixth of the radio series.
  4. Number 42 Explained by Douglas Adams - Also Base 13 Explained, h2g2; link here.

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Ultimate Question (2024)

FAQs

Ultimate Question? ›

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.

What are the ultimate question? ›

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.

What is answer 42 the ultimate question? ›

Take author Douglas Adams's popular 1979 science-fiction novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the first in a series of five. Toward the end of the book, the supercomputer Deep Thought reveals that the answer to the “Great Question” of “Life, the Universe and Everything” is “forty-two.”

What does 42 mean in the meaning of life? ›

Forty-two is the ASCII code for the symbol * also known as the asterisk. This symbol is often thought to translate to anything or everything. In this instance, 42 = everything, the meaning of life.

Why is 42 a special number? ›

The number 42 is especially significant to fans of science fiction novelist Douglas Adams' “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,” because that number is the answer given by a supercomputer to “the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.” Booker also wanted to know the answer to 42.

What are the ultimate questions? ›

They are questions about purpose and existence: Why are we here? What happens to us when we die? Why is there so much suffering? Is there a god?

What are the four ultimate questions? ›

Answers to Life's Ultimate Questions

In the video below, Voddie Baucham answers the 4 questions: “Who am I? Why am I here? What is wrong with the world? How can what is wrong be made right?

Why is 42 called 42? ›

What does 42 mean? 42 is the answer to the “ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything,” a joke in Douglas Adams's 1979 novel, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

What do you get when you multiply 6 by 9? ›

Well as most people know, the “answer” to this question (in the Hitchhikers universe) is 42. When Douglas Adams was asked whether he invented this question because six times nine is actually 54, which is 42 when written in base thirteen, he replied: "I may be a sorry case, but I don't write jokes in base 13."

What is the question of Life, the Universe, and Everything? ›

"Life, the universe, and everything" is a common name for the off-topic section of an Internet forum, and the phrase is invoked in similar ways to mean "anything at all". Many chatbots, when asked about the meaning of life, will answer "42". Several online calculators are also programmed with the Question.

What does 42 mean in slang? ›

42: The answer to life, the universe, and everything.

What does 42 in her body mean? ›

'42 in her body' means that she is the embodiment of galaxy… im crying a river.. IM CRYING BAD.

Is 42 a perfect number? ›

First, we find the divisors of 42, or the numbers that divide into 42 evenly. Now, we identify the proper divisors in this list, which are all of the divisors other than 42 itself. Lastly, we add these proper divisors up. Since 54 ≠ 42, we have that 42 is not a perfect number.

What does 42 mean in girl code? ›

42. No guy wants a girl that flirts with everyone and their mother. 43. If your friend is happy, be happy for her. 44.

Why do programmers love 42? ›

In the tech world, specifically the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), 42 is the code for the asterisk symbol, which signifies a wildcard character on the keyboard.

Is 42 the answer to the universe? ›

42 is the number of galactic years that the Sun-Earth system will survive before it's destroyed. And 42 is the expansion rate of the entire Universe, in miles-per-second-per-megaparsec. It really could be the answer to the ultimate question about life, the Universe, and everything.

What are the five ultimate questions? ›

5 Ultimate Questions
  • Creation. How did all this come to be and what should we think about it?
  • Possibility. What should we do?
  • Wholeness. How do we become whole?
  • Others. How do we relate to others?
  • Value. What's valuable and how am I of value?
Jun 2, 2014

What are the 3 big questions in life? ›

And though these questions are many, you could make the argument that they all really boil down to these three fundamental ones:
  • Who are we?
  • Where are we from?
  • Where are we going?
Jan 17, 2024

What are the 4 big questions of life? ›

You've already got answers to the five big questions of life:
  • Where did I come from?
  • Who am I?
  • Why am I here?
  • How should I live?
  • Where am I going?
Nov 8, 2018

What are the 4 questions of existence? ›

Where Do I Come From? What Is My Purpose? Where Am I Going?

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