SI: foreword & afterword Traditional Cache

The International System of Units (SI), commonly known as the metric system, is the international standard for measurement. The SI plays an essential role in international commerce and is commonly used in scientific and technological research and development. This cache is part of the SI geoart that allows you to learn about the SI units. Visit the introduction cache to learn more about this geoart.

yoursunny is a metric person

I come from China. While China has its own traditional units of measurement, only two mass units, 斤 and 两, are commonly encountered in daily life. Otherwise, every student is taught the metric system in elementary school, and everyone uses metric units.

When I came to the United States, I saw some SI-compatible units:

• Coca-cola comes in 2-litre bottles.
• A morning class is 50 minutes.
• Mains electricity is 120 volts and 60 hertz.

However, there are more widespread use of US Customary units:

• Distance from airport to hotel is 11 miles.
• Speed limit is 25 miles per hour.
• Air conditioner is set to 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Swimming pool is 25 yards long and 7 feet deep.
• Steak is USD 5.99 per pound.
• Coca-cola comes in 12 fluid ounce cans.

After eight years, I’m still not accustomed to these non-SI units.

Why SI geoart?

It has come to my attention that many geocachers do not know the metric system. When I was interviewed by the Maryland Geocaching Society, one of the replies mentions:

If I could only train him to get away from that metric system. It drives me nuts when he says the cache is 234 meters away.

It seems that I have to “force” you guys to learn the metric system. The best way to do that is creating a geoart!

Story of the SI geoart

Creating a geoart is a lot more involved than making a mystery.

1. How many caches? A 3x5 bitmap font tells me: sixteen.
2. I ordered a batch of nanos. I wish I can hide bigger containers, but someone in a red cap is hogging all the trails.
3. I started reading about the International System of Units and planning the puzzle questions.
4. Containers arrived! Sadly, they aren’t nanos, but baby-nanos.
5. Caches were hidden and coordinates were measured.
6. Writing the puzzle pages took me, on average, one hour each.
7. Submitted!

Thanks to the reviewer, all listings were published the next morning. I anxiously watched the numbers changing on Certitudes. Why nobody could solve kilogram and radian? I messed up the numbers, and now I owe 30 push-ups. As promised, there are 30 push-ups in this video.

During the creation of this series, I learned a lot about SI, even if I’ve been using SI units all my life. I figured out the meaning of a few less common SI units such as steradian, coulomb, farad, and candela. I also found my lack of knowledge about electromagnetism, so that I wasn’t able to include puzzles about siemens, weber, tesla, henry, etc.

As of this writing, the sixteen caches in SI geoart have received 175 correct solutions. I consider this a success.

This Geocache

This cache is at the posted coordinates, but not easy to find. It is not a baby-nano and does not require tweezers. To conserve space, please omit the date and write the first two letters of your username only.

Lists of Caches in SI geoart

0. introduction
1. second and hertz
2. metre
3. kilogram
4. m/s and km/h
5. mole
6. radian and steradian
7. m/s² and newton
8. m² and pascal
9. joule and watt
10. ampere and coulomb
11. volt and farad
12. ohm
13. kelvin
14. candela, lumen, and lux
15. bushel
16. foreword & afterword
17. prize distribution