xmlns:og='http://ogp.me/ns#' Yeah. Good Times.: Let's talk about the number 42

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Let's talk about the number 42

42? Why are we talking about that number, you ask? Well, no reason, actually. I just thought I'd take a moment, on this day of the year that has absolutely no significance whatsoever, to randomly talk about a number that has no meaning to me. Hey, I'm a Bookkeeper! I like numbers! 42 is totally NOT a prime number, you know; in fact it is not only divisible by another number other than itself and 1, it is divisible by FIVE MORE THAN THAT. It's really a great number, when you think about it. But you probably should try not to think about it too much. That's my plan for the day, anyway.

Here are some interesting facts about the number 42. I don't feel like citing my source, so just trust me that I know what I'm talking about and/or I know how to google and then copy and paste:
  1. In Mathematics, number 42 is called an abundant number. For what reason? Let’s say, it is equivalent to one semester in college to find out why it’s called an abundant number.
  2. In Chemistry, number 42 is the atomic number of molybdenum.
  3. The angle of rainbow is 42 degrees.
  4. A 3×3x3 magic cube has a sum of 42.
  5. In the Ancient Egyptian religion, there are 42 gods and goddesses to represent the principles of Ma’at.
  6. In the bible, there are 42 generations in the Genealogy of Jesus according to the Gospel of Matthew.
  7. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has 42 illustrations
  8. 42 is a magic number for programmers. In the TIFF image file format, it is the second 16-bit word of every file.
  9. Tiling a plane using regular hexagons occupy all in all 42 squares.
  10. In the Book of Revelations, it is mentioned that the Beast will hold dominion over the Earth for 42 days
Wow, that's actually kind of weird. In a search of interesting facts about the number 42, I come up with 10 results and none of them mention Douglas Adams. Isn't that weird? You would think that would be #1 in the list. I mean, fuck math... who the hell cares about MATH? You know who fucking hates math? Child 1. And whatever Child 1 hates, we all should hate. Because he's an angel child who has psychic abilities and we should all trust whatever he says about anything. That actually makes my profession kind of awkward, but it's okay because I'm in therapy and eventually I'll work that one out.

And now, please enjoy this video by the 1980's band Level 42. OH, I bet you thought this was going to be Something About You, but NO! As a child of the 1980's I had the privilege of actually listening to all this crap on the radio when it was new, and I like this Level 42 song better than the one they're famous for (One Hit Wonder. Thank you, SongPop for that reminder). Apparently there is no actual MTV (when they used to play music) video of this song, so this was the best I could do. I could have found you a live version, but apparently this dude fucking sucked live. And by "apparently" I mean "OH MY GOD."