42

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In other fields

42 (forty-two)

Forty-two is also:

• The atomic number of molybdenum.
• The number of teeth wolves and dogs (canines) have.
• The number of U.S. gallons of oil contained in one barrel of oil.
• The answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything, according to Douglas Adams' book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It is speculated that the following references are derived from this:
  • The second 16-bit word of every TIFF image file, used together with the first word to indicate byte order.
  • A common metasyntactic variable used by programmers.
  • Fox Mulder's apartment number.
  • Level 42, the name of a band.
  • The Kumars at No. 42 TV series. In 2003, Sanjeev Bhaskar hosted a BBC show nominating The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as Britain's Best Loved Book. During the show Bhaskar stated that the Kumars house number was in honour of the book.
  • The inode number of the root directory of reiser4 file system.
• One of the Hurley numbers in Lost.
• The number of Laws of cricket.
• The age at which "The King" (Elvis Presley) died.
• In Lewis Carroll's book The Hunting of the Snark, the baker left 42 pieces of luggage on the pier. Lewis Carroll was strangely fascinated by this number. For more references, read The Annotated Alice.
• The number of orcs that the dwarf Gimli slays at the Battle of the Hornburg in J. R. R. Tolkien's book The Lord of the Rings.
• The sum of the numbers or spots on a pair of conventional (six-sided) dice.
• The name of a Texan trick-taking game played with dominoes (see 42 (dominoes)).
• The number of the French department Loire.
• The minimum age one had to have to be elected a consul in the Roman Republic.
• The number of distinct types of cheese requested in Monty Python's Cheese Shop sketch.
• The address of P. Sherman in the Disney/Pixar film Finding Nemo is 42 Wallaby Way.
• The movement number of the Hallelujah Chorus in Handel's Messiah.
• Part of the name of 42 BELOW, a vodka produced in New Zealand.
• The number of perfect squares formed by the grid at a 19x19 Go board, when the "squares" are slightly rectangular with the ratio 13/12, as required by tradition.
• The year A.D. 42, 42 BC, and 1942.
• The potion Juliet drank caused her to sleep for forty-two hours (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act IV, Scene 1, line 105).
• In Japanese, 42 (shi ni) is pronounced like "going to death" (死に). Because of that, in Japan, 42 is considered as a disastrous number.
• Age (in years) of the horse that drove Mr. Pickwick to Golden Cross, as reported by a cabman (The Pickwick Papers, Chapter III).
• The jersey number of Jackie Robinson, which is retired by all Major League Baseball teams.
• The jersey number of Pat Tillman, which was retired on November 13, 2004 by Arizona State University.
• The approximate length of a Marathon race in km.