Co-ordinates

[+matepo81]

Hi

I am new to Geocaching so apologies if this is asked else where. How do you work out co-ordinates? We went out today and one of them needed coordinates working out so we gave up

[+on4bam]

Define "working out"?

 

[+matepo81]

We were going t look for one particular geocache. It said can  you find the key to the puzzle? The cache can be found out:

N52 [g-j] . [3 * (A + E) + 2 * (H + D)] and W000 [4 * C] . [ 3* (F +B) +J]

 

How do I solve this or find somewhere to help me?

[+on4bam]

Somewhere in the listing there will be a riddle that you have to solve or questions you have to answer to get you the values for A, B,...

 

As guidelines for the forum do not allow to give solutions to puzzles you'll have to find another way to get started. Try to contact the cache owner first, I'm sure you will get some help to start solving this.

 

[+IceColdUK]

There are basically two possibilities (or even a combination of the two).

 

1. Multis

You visit one or more locations and gather the required data; maybe dates on gravestones, telephone numbers on information boards, etc., etc.

 

2. Puzzles

These are typically solved through research at home.

 

In either case, you should be able to find or work out all the values you need to calculate the coordinates.

 

38 minutes ago, matepo81 said:

N52 [g-j] . [3 * (A + E) + 2 * (H + D)] and W000 [4 * C] . [ 3* (F +B) +J]

 

In your example you will need values for A to J (not including I).  Then, G-J will give you the minutes of the northings - these are likely to be the same or very nearly the same as the those in the posted coordinates, and therefore provide a quick check that you’re on the right track.  Similarly, 4*C (that’s 4 ‘times’ C) gives the minutes of the westings.

 

The other values can be ‘plugged in’ to get the decimal minutes for N and W - each of these will (probably) evaluate to three digit numbers.

[+niraD]

50 minutes ago, IceColdUK said:

1 hour ago, matepo81 said:

N52 [g-j] . [3 * (A + E) + 2 * (H + D)] and W000 [4 * C] . [ 3* (F +B) +J]

 

In your example you will need values for A to J (not including I).  Then, G-J will give you the minutes of the northings - these are likely to be the same or very nearly the same as the those in the posted coordinates, and therefore provide a quick check that you’re on the right track.  Similarly, 4*C (that’s 4 ‘times’ C) gives the minutes of the westings.

 

The other values can be ‘plugged in’ to get the decimal minutes for N and W - each of these will (probably) evaluate to three digit numbers.

 

Here's an example of what this formula might look like, using completely made-up numbers. You'll need to work out the actual numbers based on the cache description and then do the math on your own with the actual numbers to get the actual final location. But let's say that the values you got are:

 

A = 25, B = 19, C = 10.75, D = 96, E = 76, F = 22, G = 7, H = 30, J = 6

 

Okay, now let's use those example numbers to work out the formula:

 

N 52 [g-j] . [3 * (A + E) + 2 * (H + D)] W 000 [4 * C] . [ 3* (F +B) +J] =

N 52 [7 - 6] . [3 * (25 + 76) + 2 * (30 + 96)] W 000 [4 * 10.75] . [ 3 * (22 + 19) + 6] =

N 52 [1] . [3 * (101) + 2 * (126)] W 000 [43] . [ 3 * (41) + 6] =

N 52 [1] . [303 + 252] W 000 [43] . [ 123 + 6] =

N 52 [1] . [555] W 000 [43] . [ 129] =

N 52 01.555 W 000 43.129

 

So if those were your numbers, then your final coordinates would be N 52 01.555 W 000 43.129.

 

You might notice that in this example, the final coordinates match the location of one of the traditional caches that you've found recently. I did that to make sure I wasn't giving anything away about the actual cache while I was showing you how coordinate math works in geocaching for multi-caches and mystery/puzzle caches.

[+matepo81]

Ok thanks for the above although this has completely gone over my head and actually have no idea what I'm doing. I'm so confused! 

Thanks for the help though 

[+IceColdUK]

2 hours ago, matepo81 said:

Ok thanks for the above although this has completely gone over my head and actually have no idea what I'm doing. I'm so confused! 

Thanks for the help though 

 

If you can share the GC code, we may be able to make it clearer for you.

[+niraD]

22 minutes ago, IceColdUK said:

2 hours ago, matepo81 said:

Ok thanks for the above although this has completely gone over my head and actually have no idea what I'm doing. I'm so confused! 

Thanks for the help though 

 

If you can share the GC code, we may be able to make it clearer for you.

 

Or perhaps you could explain what is confusing you. At what point did you understand the explanation, and at what point did you not understand the explanation?

[+noncentric]

16 hours ago, matepo81 said:

Ok thanks for the above although this has completely gone over my head and actually have no idea what I'm doing. I'm so confused! 

Thanks for the help though 

 

Maybe using smaller numbers makes it easier to follow?
The cache description should have some instructions of how to assign a number to each letter (A, B, C, etc).

 

If the numbers are as follows:

A = 2
B = 4
C = 6
D = 9
E = 3
F = 1
G = 8
H = 0
J = 5

 

Then you substitute the numbers for the matching letter and then use mathematical rules to reduce down to a smaller number:

N52 [g-j] . [3 * (A + E) + 2 * (H + D)]
N52 [8-5] . [3 * (2 + 3) + 2 * (0 + 9)] --> N52 03 . [3 * (5) + 2 * (9)] --> N52 03 . [15 + 18] --> N52 03 . 033

 

W000 [4 * C] . [ 3* (F + + J]
W000 [4 * 6] . [ 3* (1 + 4) + 5] --> W000 24 . [ 3* (5) + 5] --> W000 24 . [ 15 + 5] --> W000 24 . 020