Baby Aliens Mystery Cache

I was told as a child that the reason we use a base 10 number system is because we have ten digits, five on each hand (or foot). If that's true, then the Babylonians (or Baby Aliens as I like to think of them), must have had thirty digits on each hand . The posted coordinates are for a place full of baby aliens - although hopefully with the usual number of fingers and toes.

The Babylonians were an ancient civilisation who lived in what is now known as modern day Iraq. The Babylonians adopted the sexagesimal (base 60) number system from the Sumerians and later adapted it into a combination of an additive and positional number system.

The original Roman number system¹ is an example of an additive system. There is a different symbol for each kind of group to be counted, and the symbol is repeated to indicate how many of the group should be counted. For example, CCVIII means add CC (100+100) to V (5) to III (1+1+1) to get 208.

Our decimal system is an example of a positional system. In decimal (base 10), we have ten different symbols and the position of the symbol in the number indicates how many of the group should be counted. For example, 2054 means 2x1000 + 0x100 + 5x10 + 4x1 (or 2x10³ + 0x10² + 5x10¹ + 4x10⁰).

The Babylonian system is a combination of both. The Babylonians used the additive principle to construct 59 different symbols (originally there was no symbol for zero but a blank space) from just two cuneiform characters, which look like a 'corner' < and a 'wedge' Y. These symbols were then combined in a positional way to make a number. It seems strange and unnecessarily complicated to deal in base 60. One popular theory as to why base 60 was chosen is that 60 has an abundance of divisors (2,3,4,5,6,10,12,15,20,30) which made working with fractions simpler.

So, what has any of this got to do with geocaching? Well, vestiges of the Babylonian number system still exist today: sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in a degree. Sound familiar? Also, the location of this cache is given below in the Babylonian number system . The cache will require nimble fingers to retrieve. No swaps; only room for a logbook and pen.

Have fun counting. You might need to enlist a couple of friends and take your socks and shoes off .

[ Note 1: The Roman number system that we are more familiar with today was an improvement on the original additive system by combining elements of a subtractive system. In a subtractive system, when symbols of a lower value precede one of a higher value, it indicates instead that it is to be subtracted (instead of added) to the latter. For example, IV means subtract I (1) from V (5) to get 4.]