Across our existence, debate has raged as to what the answer is. But the key to unlocking the universe may now have finally be revealed. And the answer is 137.
According to How Stuff Works, Arthur Miller, a professor of history and philosophy of science at University College London, believes the number still holds the mystery and significant to alter the universe.
He said: “137 continues to fire the imagination of everyone from scientists and mystics to occultists and people from the far-flung edges of society.
“Physicists say that 137 is the approximate measure of the strength of the electromagnet force which powers electron and muon particles.”
Leon Lederman, an iconic American physicist, once said that 137 “contains the crux of electromagnetism, relativity and quantum theory”.
READ MORE: NASA Antarctica: How space agency is preparing for LIFE ON MARS
He added that the number “shows up naked all over the place”.
That meant scientists on any planet in any universe would come up with 137 in physics.
In 1929, Arthur Eddington, who helped validate Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, approved of scientists claims surrounding the number.
Mr Miller said: “Eddington sought new mysticism which would emerge from the natural sciences.
“Perhaps, he thought, the clue lay in numbers particularly the number 137.
“Eddington’s reputation as one of the great astrophysicists of his day put a great deal of weight on this approach.”
The theory first reared its head in the early 1900s.
Scientists believed it lay at the heart of the grand unified theory, which relates the theories of electromagnetism, quantum mechanics and, especially, gravity.