This Isn't Your
Usual Puzzle And
Cache
Last week before the STAG meeting, I
thought to myself, I should go caching.
Then I saw this photo. Now who
wants to look like that?
So I stayed home to work on a cache or two. I
have sadly solved most of the hard puzzles in town, so I decided to
waste some time counting molecules. I found out it takes
many, many years to count out enough molecules to weigh anything
significant. I went down my basement and dusted off the old
triple beam balance. I picked up some dry mouth medication
and found that all the dipotassium chloride had crystalized at the
top. It was pure. So, I started counting and counting
and counting, and counting. If you think you get the picture
already you don't. I finally got tired of this after
1,909,577,942,668,696 years, (yes 960,000 times the
estimated lifetime of our universe). I quit after I counted
6.0221415 × 1023
molecules of dipotassium chloride. Yes, I felt it was a good
time to quit. Whew!
Now, you need to find out
exactly how much this weighs. I had a hard
time checking this out so I sought out the standard. For this
cache, you should find the same periodic table that I did.
The periodic table I used was dated June 22, 2007 and was published
by an union dedicated to finding and maintaining the standards for
Chemistry.
"If it is
the cache you seek, the standard you should
find" (Advice
fromYoda)
I just had to taste the
stuff, I put a little bit to the tip of my tongue and
gagged. I ran to my Fridge and quickly washed it down with a
Grasshøpper.
When I remeasured the amount, I found
that I had lost .70mg from the sample. I took the new
value and wrote it down.
I then found an old prescription
bottle of pure ammonium chloride. Nasty smelling stuff. I was
going to take some, but since I already downed the
Grasshøpper I didn't need anymore diuretic.
Seeing I didn't have as much time to count out each molecule,
I quickly weighed out exactly 6.0221415 × 1023
molecules according to the standard periodic table. I was real
proud of myself, but since ammonium chloride is a
mucosal irritant I suddenly had the urge to sneeze. I
tried to stop, but I did blow some of the ammonium chloride
off of the scale. I thought I better remeasure, I had only
blown away 1.34mg of the stuff. I wrote this new weight down
as well.
Look at those numbers, wow, in
my life numbers like that can only mean one thing.
And Yes Virginia, there
is a cache there, complete with an FTF.
You better be quick cuz methinks
GeoPharmgirl will scoop this one.
The cache was last seen sportin'
some fine cammo tape and was Locked 'n Loaded with about .5L of
swag. The container was a little worried about being buried
alive, so I tucked her away from prying eyes in a cozy spot.
It should protect from the snow. As I was leaving, I heard a
little wimper from the container. I heard a faint "Don't leave
me here... I'll get lonely" I comforted her and explained
that there will be others..........Please don't let her
down.