Night Caching: The Tesla Experiment! Mystery Cache

This cache has been archived.

KG6EAR: Per Groundspeak:
"Greetings KG6EAR, and thank you for writing to Groundspeak about your puzzle cache with the additional logging requirement.

Generally we have been requiring cache owners to make their additional logging requirements optional, after which a reviewer could change the cache type to traditional. I do not believe that approach would be appropriate here for two reasons - it would reduce the value of the find to those who have followed the instructions, and their finds would be changed from a puzzle cache find to a traditional cache find. While this might be of little consequence to some, it would be quite troublesome to me and probably many others.

The best way I see to preserve the integrity of your puzzle cache is to archive it in its current state, thereby keeping its history intact and keeping the statistics of the finders in place.

Concurrently, you could create a new cache page with essentially the same design, but making the experiments and reporting the results optional. I feel confident that the majority of visitors will conduct the experiments even if they are optional.

I appreciate the creativity of the cache design and its educational value. Regrettably, granting an exception in this case would lead to "me too" exception requests for far less worthy caches, and we choose not to start on that slippery slope.

Sincerely,

Brad Webb
Groundspeak, Inc. - The Language of Location
home of: Geocaching, Waymarking, Wherigo
www.groundspeak.com

Ticket Details

Ticket ID: DZX-955004
Department: Cache Appeals
Priority: Medium"

Dear cachers:

Groundspeak has chosen to permanently tie the hands of the cache owners in a way that enforces that we can't enforce quality on our caches in an appropriate manner of our own chosing without requiring users to send in emails with answers. This robs the logs of the content therefore unless users choose to duplicate the answers into their logs. Asking people in my opinion to log experiment results on the cache page as part of a LOG REQUIREMENT was way better in terms of the quality of logs from users, and sharing between the users, than if they get secretly emailed to me, the only thing I can now enforce. I feel that this decision has lowered the overall quality of this cache, and am thus forced to archive it for respect to those who did follow the ALRs when I could enforce them. Thanks everyone who found this once-fine cache. It may appear again some time later, in another form, but it just won't be the same...

-Regards,

Matt

More
Hidden : 7/9/2008
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

You must conduct an unscientific investigation into the strange electrical and magnetic disturbances here. To log this cache, you must not only sign the log in the cache, but must submit a report on your science experiment findings.. A tool is provided in the cache for those night-caching. THE CACHE IS PARTIALLY BURIED. PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MOVE OR REMOVE THE CACHE, JUST POP THE LID OPEN FROM THE FRONT!

!THIS IS A PUZZLE CACHE AND YOUR FIND LOG MUST COMPLY WITH EXPERIMENT GUIDELINES BELOW OR IT WILL BE DELETED!
Nichola Tesla
Tesla's AC dynamo
Tesla's $1,000,000 experiment in wireless electrical transmissionlights.

Can energy be transmitted through the air without wires?

The energy fields emitted by high voltage power lines have long been suspected of causing cancer or birth defects by those who live around them. Some government studies have shown them to be completely safe, and devoid of any effects upon the human body. This cache gives you the tool to do an informal, "unscientific" study of the energy field itself, and let you decide how safe you think it would be to be exposed to this for long periods of time.

One can't say enough about Tesla's lesser known but highly useful contributions to society.. everything from radio transmission to remote control. As the former head of the forerunner to today's IEEE, Tesla had his hands in almost everything that made electrical lighting, radio transmission and even computers themselves possible. The man was a genious in the least and during his later years did not get the credit for (nor the lifestyle) that his inventions truly deserved! We are still struggling to understand some of his accomplishments fully 100 years later! As can be seen by Intel's recent rediscovery of Nikola Tesla's wireless electrical distribution!

The experiment's location:

The HVAC (high voltage alternating current) lines here are the source of the disturbance here we are measuring or demonstrating with the experiment. The first two sets of towers and lines (the northern-most two sets of lines that are lower to earth) are the AC lines which we are examining for creating electrical disturbances here. These HVAC lines are unusually low in comparison to other HVAC lines in the region, being only about 25-30 feet off the ground here (code specifies 20 foot minimums from any structure), so this location will produce maximum effect for studying their effects. Their lowered height over this road may be due to the neighboring SCLA airport flight path. The nearby HVDC (high voltage direct current) lines (the southern-most set of lines and towers) do not put out nearly as much of a disturbance due to the differing nature of the method of their electrical transmission and their higher clearance from the ground and thus are not suitable for doing any of the experiments provided.

Once you park under the AC lines, the second you get out of your vehicle, you may feel strange here (particularly if you have a lot of iron in your diet?) Metallic objects or other things may vibrate in your hands, particularly when they touch the fence! Hairs may stand up on the back of your neck. Here, ground is not ground the world around.. Or is it?

Those who know my YouTube account will know what to expect here, but I'm not going to make things that easy on you as to show you outright. A large part of the fun here is the discovery of the unknown. You may be surprised at what you find! If you want to be surprised, it's best that you don't read the comments of other finders until after you have posted your find!

DAY CACHE EXPERIMENT:

This won't be as spectacular as a day cache, but you can still do an experiment here in daylight... Ideally, to do it bring an electrical meter set to measure AC voltage (in the hundreds of volts range). Stick one probe's metal end into the dirt and touch the metal end of the other probe to anywhere on the fence that's by the cache.. You will get different readings in different places on the fence. Generally, higher up on the fence produces higher readings because it's closer to the field induced by the lines above. For a higher reading, let the meter "float". Take the probe out of the earth and just hold it in the air while you touch the other one on the fence. How high can you make the meter read??? If you can, take a picture of your best reading on the meter and upload it with your find! To claim this during a day cache, you must post the voltage(s) you measured with your meter in your find log or upload a picture of your meter reading in order to claim your find here! If you don't have a meter, then you can simply briefly touch the fence and see that you will experience a mild shock, much like touching a 9V battery to your tongue.

NIGHT CACHE EXPERIMENT:

As a night cache... And this is where it gets really fun! You should simply take out the compact fluorescent light bulb from the cache and see what happens! If you have a flashlight, you can also conduct the daytime meter version of the experiment if you are curious. Mind you that this bulb was brought here from the recycle-pile as it no-longer works in a standard lamp socket (the electronics in its base are dead). BUT IT WORKS HERE WITH NO WIRES! You can even take up to a 4 foot long standard office style fluorescent tube and wave it in the air here and it will light up (results vary depending on where you hold the tube. In the air, it's best to hold it from one end only.) Touching the bulb's metal end to the fence will produce the strongest results. We suggest holding only the glass parts of the bulbs furthest from the metal when you touch their metal ends to the fence to avoid experiencing the mildly surprising static shock! In this bulb, you can "see" the alternating electric field most visually. It will not be what you would normally expect!

Cache Contents:

All these items stay in the cache permanently!
  • Instructions booklet which repeats what's on this page
  • Cache log where you can write your experimental results
  • Normally non-functional compact fluorescent light bulb
  • pen

If anyone wants to add tradable swag to this cache, I ask that for anything other than geocoins or travel bugs, that the items added should be loosely connected to the theme of this cache (electrical stuff, scientific gear, anything about Tesla or his experiments, etc)...

Safety!

Firstly, this location is on the side of a very low-traffic public dirt road under high voltage power lines. The fact that this is a public conveyance with a lack of "no trespassing" signs of any kind means that this area is generally safe for all those who travel through here.

As an electrical engineering degree holder, I can tell you that this cache is safe! The fence is not an electric fence. Just a normal waste-high rusty old metal fence without barbs. The static electricity eddie currents induced by the electro-magnetic field here may produce an uncomfortable momentary zap if touched, much like those gotcha pens and lighter prank jokes or dragging your feet across a carpet with rubber shoes and touching a grounded object like a light switch cover. The truly paranoid can still conduct the experiment without touching the fence, but the results won't be nearly as spectacular! Those wishing not to receive any of these mild static zaps will not receive any if they don't touch the fence with bare skin and don't touch anything metal which touches the fence. Hold the light bulb by the plastic or glass parts.

FIND LOG REQUIREMENTS

If you simply post a "I was out caching, TNLN TFTC!" generic cut-and-paste type log on this cache, your find will be deleted. This is a puzzle cache which requires you to conduct an experiment here. You must log what kind of experiment you performed be it touching the fence, measuring the voltage on the fence, or using a florescent light like the one in the cache here on the fence, or an experiment of your own design. You must also log what the results were in order to claim a find on this cache! I expect any scientists in the crowd have very thorough results to log... ;)

YOU CAN CLAIM UP TO TWO FINDS ON THIS CACHE! I will allow anyone brave enough to conduct the day experiment in the daytime and the night experiment at night to log two separate finds for this cache with proof that they came twice (pics that show clearly both day and night experiments) !

CONGRATULATIONS BurgessBunch on your experiment's fairly shocking first findings!

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Bu pbzr ba, guvf vf ernyyl ohfu-yrnthr nf sne nf svaqvat vg tbrf!

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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