**Geocache container is NOT at posted coordinates!**
**Not recommended as a "field puzzle!"**
Difficulty rating is based on the need for "special knowledge" and potential need for refreshing (or upgrading) your mathematical prowess. Physical cache is ehh... maybe a 2.
Here's your opportunity to use some of that high school math you hated so much! (or did you?)
Final coordinates are: N 40° 50.ABC' W 124° 04.DEF'
We've supplied separate Solution Checkers for Latitude and Longitude to help you track down any errors. If you still can't determine which problem(s) are off, feel free to message us with your solution(s) and we will let you know which is wrong and offer additional hints as needed/desired.
You are looking for whole numbers (integers.) You'll encounter a bit of rounding error, but it should be so inconsequential as to leave no doubt.
Notes in BLUE are search terms that will lead you to sources to help you solve each problem
A) A New Geocache has just been published between Eureka and Arcata!
Within seconds, Rob leaves the south end of Arcata on his bike traveling 12 MPH to the south. At the same moment, 5.655 miles away, Porthos leaves northern Eureka, heading north on horseback traveling 29 MPH. However, Porthos is not a great horseman, and, unable to check his steed, he passes the new geocache without any change in speed. Porthos has traveled A miles at the point that he passes Rob determinedly pedaling south. [two trains word problem]
B) Aramiss is extracting a pesky nano from a ground-level hidey-hole. She overestimates the needed force and launches the minuscule magnetic capsule straight up into the air at v=32 ft/sec. The path is given by h=-16t2+vt. She listens for it to hit the ground, which will take X seconds. B=X-1. [thrown object formula]
C) humspuds is planning a new cache. She wants it to be an easy one so she plans to suspend a bison tube over a tree branch "a little bit off the ground." In order to calculate how much cordage to purchase, she lies on the ground 100 feet away from the base of the tree and sights up at the branch. She estimates the angle between the ground and her line of sight to be 28.39°, (give or take.) A bit of quick math reveals that the branch is about C fathoms high. [estimating tree height clinometer]
To check your solutions for the missing digits of the latitude, enter ABC in the solution checker:
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.
D) Nylimb is using his compass and a map to hunt 2 caches in relatively flat, open terrain. From his geomobile, he walks on a bearing of 249° for 2.6 miles to the first cache. After finding it “in about a minute” he sets a course for the second cache, bearing 129° for another 2.6 miles. This cache is a D5 so it takes Nylimb a couple extra seconds. After signing the log, he sets a course of D° straight back to his velocipede. [navigating with a compass]
E) BRUHN is building a custom cache container. He has a piece of metal 18.25” long with an L-shaped cross section which measures 2” by 3.5”. He wants to find a piece of metal to create a triangular prism. He does the math, and rounding down to the nearest whole inch, he concludes that he needs a piece of metal E inches wide. [Pythagorean theorem]
F) Based solely on a strictly applied 1 liter cutoff, if BRUHN should list his new container as a “small” then F=5. If this is a “regular” container, then F =0. [volume of triangular prism]
To check your solutions for the missing digits of the longitude, enter DEF in the solution checker:
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.