Moore Mathematics

This is the first in a series of caches with a mathematical theme to the solutions. The co-ordinates at the top of the page are not the co-ordinates of the cache but the general area is correct. The location in the village of Perry Green in Hertfordshire. This is the home of the Henry Moore Foundation . You can only visit the Henry Moore Foundation by appointment. The details are on their website. If you have made an appointment you can park there. If you have not made an appointment then you could park in the street or otherwise The Hoops public house is only a short stroll away at 51 50.234N 0 05.236E. To find the cache you need to solve two mathematical problems (GCSE level).

The first is shown in the diagram on the right. It is a walk with the distances given in kilometres. The angle, A, marked in red is what you have to find. When you have found the angle this is the Northing of the location of the cache. It will be a decimal number but you need to convert it to degrees and minutes. The minutes needs to be to three decimal places.

The second ploblem is in the form of a sequence of numbers: 1, 3, 7, 13, 21, . . . . . . 1 is the first term; 3 the second term and so on.

You need to find the pattern. When you know the pattern you must calculate the following terms and calculate the values of x and y.

x = 58th term - 57th term - 11th term + 1st term

y = 29th term.

Finally the Easting is given by 0 x.y E. That is to say zero degrees. The x is the number of whole minutes. The y is the decimal part of the minutes ( it has three digits as expected).

Due to a small change in the location over time you now need to add 0.021 minutes to the northing and 0.009 minutes to the easting to obtain the final location

You now have the location of the final cache. To get to the cache I suggest you start at 51 50.234N 0 05.200E. There is a footpath here that will take you through the Henry Moore Foundation. You will see many great sculptures from the path BUT the garden is closed, unless you have made an appointment, so you must stay on the path at all times. The cache is not hidden in the grounds of the foundation.

The final location of the cache has great views over the open countryside especially at sunset. The site is a little exposed so take care to hide the cache properly when you are finished. The cache is a 1L tupperware container.