what was the question?

    When my daughter, now grown, was about 10 years old, she once looked up from her homework and asked "Mom, is the answer 4?"  What a cosmically weird question. 4 is the answer to so many things. According to the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", 4 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything--oops, spoiler. 4 is the answer to-- how many legs does a cow have? or a table ?(usually) or any quadruped? --what is 6-2?, and infinite mathematical variations on that theme-- how many years between Olympics? or leap years?  4 may be the answer to how old are you?--or how many pieces of pizza are left? It can be the answer to so many things. I began to see what Douglas Adams saw in 4 as a universal answer. But what was the question?