Welcome to the PMC
Lite!!!
This series was created in response to the many people who wanted a
puzzle series, but did not want anything as difficult as the Puzzle
Masters Challenge.
This series is meant to be fun and get those cachers, who are not
normally interested in puzzle caches, to try their hand at them and
realize that they are not as bad as they seem.
It is meant to be fun and entertaining and take you many places in
the Mid-Atlantic region.
The caches in this series will all be released sporadically between
now and the
PMC puzzle event in June.
So have fun, begin to find these caches and collect the clues in
each cache you find. They will eventually lead you to the
final.
If you would like a list of all the caches in all the PMC series,
you can find it here. It is a work in
progress, but will contain all the caches and their creators as
they are released.
Hope you have fun and thanks for visiting!!!!
The Black Hole
Black holes form when stars collapse. Black
holes are unbelievably dense and compact, and
possess such a HUGE gravitational pull that
nothing, even light, can escape them (that’s why the holes
are black). Since light doesn’t emanate from one, a
black hole can’t be directly observed but its existence must
be inferred from other observations.
Image: Gravitational pull of a suspected monstrous
black hole forms a frisbee-like disk of cool gas, at the core of a
galaxy. From Hubble Space Telescope. L. Ferrarese (Johns Hopkins
University) and NASA
Recently, a star collapsed near Liberty Reservoir and formed a
black hole. Unfortunately, as with all black holes, this one
can’t be detected. But we know that it is sure to be there
since observers were watching the star as it collapsed. One
onlooker recorded the locations of four of the star’s five
points, shortly before it vanished, and that is what we have to go
on.
Image: Collapsing star over Liberty Reservoir, shortly
before the Black Hole event. From T. Grapes and Google
Earth
Point 1: unavailable (bad data)
Point 2: N39 23.393 W76 52.925
Point 3: N39 22.610 W76 53.253
Point 4: N39 22.610 W76 54.315
Point 5: N39 23.393 W76 54.643
The black hole will be at the center of the star and, as you may
have already guessed, that’s where the cache is hidden. It
only takes a bit of algebra, geometry and trigonometry, along with
a coordinate calculator such as FizzyCalc, to figure out the
spot. FizzyCalc is a valuable free program that doesn't come
with directions, but is well worth the small time investment it
takes to learn. (get
FizzyCalc)
Here is a suggested solution approach. Refer to the
star sheet for more insight.
1. Find the distance and bearing between any two adjacent points
using FizzyCalc.
2. Determine the distance from any point to the center by
calculation.
3. Determine the bearing from any point to the center by simple
math.
4. Calculate the center coordinates by projection, using
FizzyCalc.
There is parking for a couple of cars at the listing coordinates
N39 23.152 W76 54.483.
Note: A code letter/number is in the cache container. Record the
information if you are participating in the PMC Lite cache
series.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on
Geochecker.com.