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.”

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.”

So, back to the question: “What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?” Deep Thought gives “42” as the answer, and with the proper context this is the best answer Deep Thought could give because Deep Thought is giving the answer in the only way a computer understands.