Which is it?

[+Gralorn]

Lately people tend to be doing different things with the / or * when setting equations. I have always understood that either symbol means divide as there is no such symbol on the key board. where as there is an - + = and x. Can it be clarified that either denotes division or is it either now? division and multiply??

[+drdick&vick]

/ is the computer symbol for 'divide'

* is the computer symbol for 'multiply'

[+Bear and Ragged]

/ is the computer symbol for 'divide'

* is the computer symbol for 'multiply'

Ditto.

 

As multi-cache equations can be A multiplied by C or X multiplied by Z, it sort of makes sense to be * or you get something like yxz. So much easier y*z!

[+paulbarratt]

Lately people tend to be doing different things with the / or * when setting equations. I have always understood that either symbol means divide as there is no such symbol on the key board. where as there is an - + = and x. Can it be clarified that either denotes division or is it either now? division and multiply??

 

What really gets my goat is when people use equations and ignore basic algebra so you end up with the wrong answer.

 

e.g. N AB C(D*E).FGH - A and B are the 1st and 2nd digits of the degrees but algebraically it should be A*B is the degrees. The digits of the minues are C and D*E but should be D*E multiplied by C. F,G and H follow the same principle as the degrees.

 

Am I being too pedantic????

 

Here endeth the maths lesson.

[GerritS]

Lately people tend to be doing different things with the / or * when setting equations. I have always understood that either symbol means divide as there is no such symbol on the key board. where as there is an - + = and x. Can it be clarified that either denotes division or is it either now? division and multiply??

 

What really gets my goat is when people use equations and ignore basic algebra so you end up with the wrong answer.

 

e.g. N AB C(D*E).FGH - A and B are the 1st and 2nd digits of the degrees but algebraically it should be A*B is the degrees. The digits of the minues are C and D*E but should be D*E multiplied by C. F,G and H follow the same principle as the degrees.

 

Am I being too pedantic????

 

Here endeth the maths lesson.

 

OK now this is why I rarely attempt multi's solo if they involve even the slightest maths...

 

If: A=1 B=2 C=3 D=4 E=5 F=6 G=7 H=8

 

I make it:

 

N 12 320.677 Although probably N 12 320.678 as the "-" possibly means the end of the equation?

 

But from what your saying I think it should be:

N 2 60.335 Although probably N 2 60.336 as the "-" possibly means the end of the equation?

 

Which gives me 4 latitudes up to 1593355.236 meters apart that's before we even start thinking about longitude

 

Some of my classic multi logs:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LU...68-1fba8e79c719

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LU...7d-5bbbf2f3bb49

 

The last multi I attempted Solo, I was foolishly going for FTF luckily I recognized the cacher returning to work out the final coordinates... Once they got the FTF they gave me the answer or I would still be there now!

 

So multi's should never be attempted Solo .

 

Or or am I missing something?

Edited June 15, 2010 by GerritS

[+Pharisee]

Use a little 'common sense'. Work it out, check how far away that would be and if it's more than half a mile see if there are any alternative solutions. If there are, start with the nearest one. For the most part, cachers are a pretty lazy bunch and long walks aren't on the agenda

[+The HERB5]

 

What really gets my goat is when people use equations and ignore basic algebra so you end up with the wrong answer.

 

Am I being too pedantic????

 

No, on a calculator enter

 

1+2*3 what answer do you get

[+Gralorn]

Incredible, but then probably as an amateur computer user that I never realised that / was a computer symbol for divide and that * was a computer symbol for multiply. So thanks for that DrDick&Vick, it certainly gives one a starter for ten as they say. Its a true saying that you learn something different every day.that's for sure

I know "So what did you learn today"????? another topic I think!

[+drdick&vick]

 

What really gets my goat is when people use equations and ignore basic algebra so you end up with the wrong answer.

 

e.g. N AB C(D*E).FGH - A and B are the 1st and 2nd digits of the degrees but algebraically it should be A*B is the degrees. The digits of the minues are C and D*E but should be D*E multiplied by C. F,G and H follow the same principle as the degrees.

 

Am I being too pedantic????

 

Here endeth the maths lesson.

 

To my reckoning if A=1 B=2 C=3 D=2 E=3 F=6 G=7 H=8

The solution is :

N 12 3(2*3).678 which gives N 12 36.678 as I was (as in many years ago) always taught that whatever is within the brackets is treated as a separate calculation.

 

Why should it be A*B, they are simply 2 figures that make up part of the final solution, no need to try and multiply them whatsoever. Algebra is a completely different beast to the equations that are being used in Multi Caches.

 

So my answer is Yes you are being too pedantic.

[+rutson]

Why should it be A*B

 

Because that's what AB means!!!

 

If A=3 and B=2

 

AB=6

 

Are you seriously telling me that Einstein should have written:

 

E = m * c * c ????

[+The Blorenges]

OK, OK, OK...

 

I can see both sides of the argument here.

 

If I see an equation given for a cache location as N AB°CD.EFG I interpret that as a simple requirement to substitute numbers for letters e.g. N 12°34.567

 

I don't think, "I must multiply 1x2 to get the degrees, then multiply 3x4, then after the decimal point multiply 5x6x7 to give final coordinates of N 2°12.210" but I do understand what the mathematicians are saying i.e. In a mathematical equation AB would mean A multiplied by B, just as xy means x multiplied by y.

 

I also agree that some equations in cache descriptions are not correctly written in the mathematical sense:

B(C+D) could be interpreted as 2(3+4) which is 2(7) which mathematically equals 14 but the chances are that the answer (for the purposes of a simple cache equation) is going to be 27.

 

*sigh*

 

I find that applying a liberal application of What-makes-most-sense-in-the-context-of-this-location-I'm-standing-in-right-now? generally brings the correct solution into focus.

 

MrsB

[+The Chaos Crew]

OK, OK, OK...

 

I can see both sides of the argument here.

 

If I see an equation given for a cache location as N AB°CD.EFG I interpret that as a simple requirement to substitute numbers for letters e.g. N 12°34.567

 

I don't think, "I must multiply 1x2 to get the degrees, then multiply 3x4, then after the decimal point multiply 5x6x7 to give final coordinates of N 2°12.210" but I do understand what the mathematicians are saying i.e. In a mathematical equation AB would mean A multiplied by B, just as xy means x multiplied by y.

 

I also agree that some equations in cache descriptions are not correctly written in the mathematical sense:

B(C+D) could be interpreted as 2(3+4) which is 2(7) which mathematically equals 14 but the chances are that the answer (for the purposes of a simple cache equation) is going to be 27.

 

*sigh*

 

I find that applying a liberal application of What-makes-most-sense-in-the-context-of-this-location-I'm-standing-in-right-now? generally brings the correct solution into focus.

 

MrsB

 

wot she said

 

Fishing back in my brain to university days for the right words, I think people are just getting their knickers in a twist about different notational conventions. Which convention is in place is contextual.

 

The convention on the geocaching site with regard to solving the final co-ordinates of a basic multi definitely seems to be that two letters next to each other – eg AB – would be converted to a two digit number via straight substitutions (eg if A = 1 and B = 2, AB = 12)

 

The convention in algebra is different – AB would be A multiplied by B

 

But we’re not doing algebra here

[+Gralorn]

Thank goodness I only asked a simple question and thankfully got a simple answer /=divide and *=multiply

[+The Blorenges]

Thank goodness I only asked a simple question and thankfully got a simple answer /=divide and *=multiply

 

If it only it were always that simple...

Just don't get your brackets in a twist.

 

MrsB

[+drdick&vick]

 

The convention in algebra is different – AB would be A multiplied by B

 

But we’re not doing algebra here

 

Thats exactly what I was trying to get at.

[+redsox_mark]

 

wot she said

 

Fishing back in my brain to university days for the right words, I think people are just getting their knickers in a twist about different notational conventions. Which convention is in place is contextual.

 

The convention on the geocaching site with regard to solving the final co-ordinates of a basic multi definitely seems to be that two letters next to each other – eg AB – would be converted to a two digit number via straight substitutions (eg if A = 1 and B = 2, AB = 12)

 

The convention in algebra is different – AB would be A multiplied by B

 

But we’re not doing algebra here

 

What they said... though I remember the first multi cache I did. Not knowing the geocaching convention, I treated one of these N AB°CD.EFG "formulas" in the algebraic way. And of course the answer didn't make any sense. Eventually I figured it out, it is a mistake you only make once.

 

But I had no problems with * and /

[+FancoverFive]

Wouldn't it be better just to use brackets around each digit? Like:

 

N 51 (A-D)(H+.©(D+E)(A+H)

 

If anyone was pedantic enough to try to work out

 

(AH+AB-DH-DB) point (CDA+CDH+CEA+CEH) minutes, then they'd only have themselves to blame when they got it wrong.