I was thinking about music and numbers the other day while playing in the traffic on the way to work. An idea popped up and I had to stop and write it down there and then. I realised that an incredible number of songs and artists have some sort of association with numbers. Perhaps I should get out more, but that’s the reasoning behind this cache.
The posted co-ordinates are for the State Archive building which is in the vicinity of the cache. You may have to visit an archive or two to find some of the answers. Nine of the answers can be found in the lyrics, artist’s name or song title. The wild card is more a case of, “where do you usually hear the song?” Answer the questions, marry up the numbers with the letters A–K (there is no i), then jump through the numerical hoops at the end of the list. This will leave you with a set of co-ordinates. There’s a checksum and geochecker ’cause I’d hate you to come any great distance without some sort of re-assurance.
The geocache terrain guide suggests 3 but I think 2½ will cover it. It's flat, open scrub, with good satellite reception. Walk carefully as the grass is a bit long. If someone was chasing me with a big stick, I reckon I could ride my pushbike to the cache.
If you’re a bit rusty with arithmetic, two things:–
1. B.O.D.M.A.S.
2. The standard order of operations.
The questions:
____ A = How many roses did Marty’s daughter send him?
____ B = How many died in Ohio?
____ C = Suicide is painless – what’s the unit’s numerical designator?
____ D = Question mark and the mysterians – how many tears?
____ E = Black and white – how many dogs?
____ F = The sum of the digits in Karen’s number at Beechwood?
____ G = It was a hot afternoon, the last day of June. She was 31, I was ????
____ H = What was the number Sue asked Harry to take her to, in his taxi?
____ J = What day of the month did Billy-Joe jump off the bridge?
____ K = Marshall’s portable music machine – how many colours?
Because of a misheard lyric on my part, I shall declare "violets" to be a colour. I always thought he said "violet".
The arithmetic:
WW = G+H+E
XXX = F*G+(G+J)*B+E+J-1
Y = B
ZZZ = C÷E-D*K-G*A-D*2-G-H-F÷E
The co-ordinates:
S27°WW.XXX E153°0Y.ZZZ
Checksum: The sum of all digits in the final co-ordinates = 63.
The checksum is not infallible, so confirm your answer at Geochecker.com.
If "Karen" or "Ken" want you to drive into the Archives, ignore them and go look for a "Gumtree".