Owlet puzzle #25
Released Thursday, July 30, 2026 UTC
42
the answer for puzzle #25
The five clues
- A two-digit sphenic number (three distinct prime factors).
- A two-digit pronic number (product of consecutive positive integers).
- A sphenic number 2·p·q where p and q are odd primes at least two apart in the prime sequence.
- Famously the 'Answer to the Ultimate Question' in a 1979 novel.
- Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Backstory
42 = 6 · 7 and, more surprisingly, the 5th Catalan number C_5 — the count of triangulations of a hexagon. Douglas Adams said he chose it as the Answer because '42 is a nice, quiet number that you could take home and introduce to your family.'
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