Storytime I - Math, Literature, and the Meaning of Life

Back in 2013, a group of Grade 11 students in Australia at the time and I were philosophizing about life. One of them asked me "What's the Meaning of life?".

"42." was my response.

Now, some students understood the reference, but others not so much.

Thanks to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (great book, great film!), I was able to sum up the answer to such a deep question.

Now, 42 in itself started to play a significant role in the class (as in, it'd become the answer to a lot of questions). And sure enough, it spread to other classes as well.

For example, I used 42 as a solution to quite a few different types of problems, such as finding missing angles in Grade 9 Trigonometry, or solving Quadratics with (x - 7)(x - 6) = 0.

But the best one, and I think it is still going on today, was in some introductory Calculus as a portion of the last question on a big exam.

Here's the problem (or something similar to it):

Part A - Derive the following function:

m(L) = -3L^2 + 30L

****Answer: m'(L) = -6L + 30****

Part B - What is the gradient of the tangent at the point where L = -2?

****Answer: m'(-2) = -6(-2) + 30 = 42****

So now, years later, something small that happened in my class has become this thing. And I know now that those students who were involved still think about it to this day. Positive experiences where I let myself engage with students on something different from the topic at hand for a few mins.

Oh, and the student who made that picture for me as a 42 as a graduation present? They're now studying to become a teacher. They now fear math less.