Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy

[D.Yeomans]

What eventually turns out to be the answer to the great question of life, the universe and everything?

[BVRichthofen]

42.

[Merthyr Imp]

Yes - the answer was 42, but (if I remember right) nobody knew what the actual question was...

[sft42]

It is 42 the problem is that no one understood the question....the earth turned out to be a super computer programmed to discover the real meaning to the whole thing...and just as it was about to be found the earth was demolished to make way for a hyper space expressway.

[Pickle]

In 'Life, the Universe and Everything' Arthur and Ford land on Earth in the distant past and discover that humans are in fact descended from the Golgafrinchans who crash landed on Earth thousands of years ago. So, the ultimate question could never have been found that way because the whole experiment was tainted. BUT because of this, Arthur and Ford decide to create a random question using scrabble tiles and the original Earth inhabitants to pick the letters. They come up with the following question: 'What do you get if you multiply six by nine'. Which proves that the universe is inherently flawed says Douglas Adams. Bit of a let down that wasn't it :)

[jenstar]

This question has come up many times on theanswerbank, which leaves me wondering, how can someone know what The Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy is, yet not know about 42?

[darth vader]

I agree with Pickle's answer except one point - i thought the original computer was trying to find the answer to the meaning of life, the universe etc. but it took so long that it forgot what the question was, so they built another computer (the Earth) to determine what the question was, which is where Arthur and Ford came in and worked out the question (and you'll probably shout me down but i could have sworn the question was in fact "what do you get if you multiply 8 by 6" (not 9 by 6))
darth

[MrIxolite]

It was six by nine, and the original computer, Deep Thought, wasn't powerful enough to work out the question, so it designed the earth to do it.