Powerful Chemical Conundrum 05 Mystery Cache

Powerful Chemical Conundrums

This series of progressively more complicated mystery caches is based in southern Tasmania. A feature of the series is that no waypoint is available for any of the caches. Each cache is located near an electrical distribution pole or tower ("Powerful"). Transend operates Tasmania's 220 kV and 110 kV transmission networks and our interest is in their high voltage transmission towers. Aurora Energy distributes electricity using a lower voltage network utilising power poles. Safety note: follow any safety warnings and avoid climbing or interfering with the structures.

Finding each cache involves four parts:

1. To find the coordinates of the power or tower you will need to solve puzzles based on chemistry ("Chemical Conundrums"). For example properties of a chemical element or of a chemical compound might be used. (Wikipedia is an invaluable tool for this.)
   
2. Each pole or tower targeted can usually be reached via a 0.5 - 5 km walk (or bike ride) along the associated service road (typically of 4-wheel drive standard). There may also be an alternative, sometimes shorter, walking track. You could use Google Maps or Google Earth to plan your route (see Tip 1 below). Coordinates may be confirmed with Geochecker (www.geocaching.com). (see Tip 2 below).
   
3. Once the site has been reached a further short walk, sometimes through light bush, will be required to get to the "waypointless" cache. Each pole or tower has an identifying label attached to it. You will require this information to solve a puzzle to discover where the cache is relative to the pole or tower. Typically you will need to determine distances and/or bearings. It is this part that becomes more difficult as the series develops.
   
4. Use the information revealed in Part 3 and find the actual cache. Since poles and towers are very conspicuous and easy to find, locating the cache has been made more challenging. The cache is in a screw top plastic jar in a black bag and is hidden so as to be inconspicuous. It contains a few small swaps and a couple of items donated by the School of Chemistry, UTAS.

Please note that all coordinates, distances and bearings are as reported by a GPS receiver at the site. The calculation of distances assumes a spherical earth and are great-circle distances; local terrain is not taken into account. Bearings are true and measured in degrees. (Some GPSRs do not measure bearings sufficiently accurately. You may therefore need to use a magnetic compass for the bearings but remember to allow for magnetic variation, currently about 14° E. Note that a magnetic compass is less reliable when in close proximity to high-tension power lines.) Now for this particular cache - good luck with the puzzling, walking/pedalling and finding.

POWERFUL CHEMICAL CONUNDRUM 05 - Wellington Park 03

• Locate an object using its coordinates (waypoint)
• Locate an object using a very approximate bearing and a specified distance from a known point

Butanethiol is a very foul smelling compound. It and other similar compounds are added to natural gas, which is odourless, so that leaks can be detected by smell.

• x is the integer part of the molecular weight of butanethiol (C₄H₁₀S)

Pyrimidine is a simple heterocyclic compound. Slightly more complicated versions of it (cytosine, thymine and uracil) are the building blocks of DNA and RNA.

• y is the integer part of the molecular weight of pyrimidine (C₄H₄N₂)

The cache is in the SW quadrant (with respect to the tower) and is about m metres from the centre of the base of the tower where:

•  m = k * (h + i)

A diagram showing possible cache locations is available below.

Look for a mini mossy mound.

Suppose the required location is S 42° 53.253' E 147° 15.150' (in geocaching representation).
For Google Maps or Google Earth use location: 42 53.253 S 147 15.150 E or location: -42 53.253 147 15.150