The cache is certainly not
at the posted coordinates.
When I was out looking for a place to hide my cache for
wsgaskins' 1 K series, I stumbled on another kind of cache: a box
of supplies labeled "Torchwood." As someone who watches BBC
America, I understood this meant alien technology. One particular
device interested me: one with a tag on it reading "The Uncertainty
Cannon." It looked rather like a mortar, but with a strange knob on
it labeled "h." Fortunately, the good people of Torchwood had added
a human interface for this device, in English, and I was able to
figure out that this was an instrument for changing the value of
Planck's constant for whatever was placed inside the Cannon.
Altering one of the fundamental constants that govern our
universe?! Naturally, I decided to test the device, using my cache
container.
When I stuck my ammo box down the firing tube, the device
registered its rest mass as 2.28 kg. I set a nearby target for my
ground zero: N 35 59.582, W 79 03.010 - the coordinates which I
give above for this cache. The device estimated my box would reach
its destination at a speed of 108 km/hr.
Now it was time to spin the "h" dial and pump up the volume on
Planck's constant. I turned that knob until I reached
h=13,954 Joule-seconds. (No, I didn't forget some
negative exponentiation there.) Then, I grinned an evil grin and
punched the "activate" button.
Immediately, I was enveloped in a kind of ammo can cloud, like a
mist the color of my box. I panicked, but had the presence of mind
to notice an "h reset" button, which I pushed. The cloud
disappeared. I went to my ground zero, but I couldn't find my
cache. But then I saw something else… or rather,
someone else.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"Captain Jack Harkness, Torchwood. I'm investigating
unauthorized use of alien technology."
We eventually got things sorted out, and he agreed not to arrest
me. As for my ammo box, he explained that the reset button was
supposed to clean up the "quantum cloud" and leave the object at a
more defined location: "But for some reason, either the wave
function doesn't collapse quite right or the alternate universes
get crossed - depending on whether you go with the Copenhagen or
Oxford interpretations of quantum mechanics - I'm an Oxford man,
myself… but, whatever the reason, whenever we use this
thing, we don't get one at the center, but two at the
extremes. It still averages out, of course, but it effectively
doubles whatever it starts with. The ones that get left behind are
right at the edge of the probability sphere: In other words,
they're separated by exactly the object's wavelength, computed the
same way you would if it were an elementary particle in normal
quantum physics."
"Is there any way to find them?" I asked.
"No problem. Your ground zero is right in the middle of the
wavelength, naturally, so once you calculate what that wavelength
is, you just need a bearing. The two objects and the ground zero
always form a straight line along the Earth's surface."
I asked him why that was, and he said something glib about "ley
lines" that didn't seem very probable or scientific, but sure
enough, it turned out to be true. Jack whipped out his "ley line"
sensor and gave me the grid north bearing (azimuth) from ground
zero to one of the two doppelganger caches. Here's what I'll tell
you about it: Just add up the values of the individual digits of
the wavelength (measured in whole meters), multiple the result by
7.5, and you'll have that bearing. Example: If the wavelength was
987 meters, the bearing to one of the containers would be
(9+8+7)*7.5 = 180 degrees.
"So, now you have two caches for the price of one," Jack told
me.
Well, not quite. You see, I'd also used another piece of alien
technology in my experiment. This was called "Schrödinger's Cache."
It was a device that you placed in a container, designed to
destroy, or not destroy, the contents with a 50/50 probability -
something involving a highly radioactive isotope of Tellurium, a
radiation detector, a timer, and some alien disintegration device.
(It all depended on whether or not a single Tellurium atom decayed
within a certain period, set exactly equal to the isotope's
half-life.) When we got to the first box we visited, Jack told me,
"Now you can finish collapsing that wave function… or, if
you're an Oxford-model guy like me, you can choose your alternate
universe. Open the box."
Well, I won't tell you what I found then, but in the end, it
turned out that one box had been vaporized inside, while the other
box was fine. Only the box with unvaporized contents and
logbook can be logged. (I've left a note expressing my
regrets in the other box.) You've got a 50/50 chance of getting it
right the first time.
As for Captain Jack Harkness from Torchwood, he came away
disturbed that both possibilities had survived my experiment. He
got angry, said I'd opened "a rift in space-time" in these woods,
and told me there was only one thing that might save us all: If we
keep collapsing the wave function, or selecting our alternate
universe, by solving this cache again and again. "Couldn't I just
give people the solution?" "No," he insisted, "Conscious awareness
is essential to the process." (Which is why, just to be safe, I'm
not even telling you the bearing, except as a function of the
wavelength.)
After delivering his injunction, Jack disappeared, taking all
his alien technology with him.
At least he left my two doppelganger caches - that is, one dead
cache and one live cache. Derive the coordinates, flip a coin, and
then hit the trail. I've left them pretty much where I found them
(within my GPSr's margin of error) - just moved them a tiny bit to
hide them. Good luck!
Oh, and just in case anything slips through that rift Jack
warned me about, keep your eye out and be careful when roaming
around this area. You never know what you might find.
P.S. Also keep your eye out for a gascan....you'll need
the information to solve
The Gaskin 1000 (aka wsgaskins 1K Challenge
Cache).
Finally, please note that
this cache is located on land belonging to the Triangle Land
Conservancy.
Please enjoy this place and treat it with
respect. For more information on the TLC, refer to: http://www.triangleland.org.
Thanks!