Friday, August 07, 2020

Is the Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything Actually 137?


In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy the answer to the question of "life, the universe, and everything" is given as 42 by Deep Thought.  Douglas Adams may have had a very specific reason for choosing the number 42.

But maybe, just maybe there's a much better number that fits the answer to the big question.

"There are some fundamental constants in nature: the charge on the electron (designated as e), Planck's constant divided by 2 π (designated by h-bar) and the velocity of light (c). From these fundamental constants one can construct a number that has no dimensions: the number h-bar * c / e ^ 2. That number is found by experiment to have the value 137, or something very close to 137. Now, there is no known reason why it should have this value rather than some other number. Various people have put forward ideas about it, but there is no accepted theory." - Paul Dirac.

Thinking of making 137 my new lucky number (and the answer to any question I have no clue about).

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