Does the number 42 in HHGTTG have any relation to rule 42 in Alice in Wonderland?

Answer 1

Apparently not.

A person puporting to be Douglas Adams posted this on a newsgroup in 1993:

"The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an

ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations,

base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk,

stared into the garden and thought '42 will do' I typed it out. End of story"

That this person actually is Adams appears to be credible. (See related link below for source)

Answer 2

There is no direct connection between the number 42 in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and rule 42 in "Alice in Wonderland." Douglas Adams chose the number 42 as a humorous and random answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. Rule 42 in "Alice in Wonderland" states that all persons more than a mile high must leave the court, serving as a whimsical and arbitrary rule in the book.