Before it became Silicon Valley, this area was known for its
bountiful fruit orchards. The dummy coordinates are on the former
grounds of what was once the biggest fruit cannery in the world
[Ref. 1]. Little is preserved from that fruitful past but a
nearby historical landmark. (If you’re curious, you may want
to visit the nearby landmark and historical plaque at N37 22.874
W122 02.105, but that information will not help solve this
puzzle.)
Not surprisingly, while researching this area I became hungry
for some fruit cocktail and decided to make my own for canning. I
did make sure it met USDA standards for fruit cocktail so kept the
proportions within the specifications of the following table [Ref.
2]:
| Fruit Ingredient |
Percentage by weight must not be less
than |
Percentage by weight must not be more
than |
| Pears |
30% |
50% |
| Peaches |
25% |
45% |
| Grapes |
6% |
16% |
| Pineapple |
6% |
20% |
| Cherries |
2% |
6% |
Here are my notes:
The individual weights of the fruits were:
AB lbs. of cherries, CD lbs. of pears, EF lbs. of pineapple, GH
lbs. of grapes and JK lbs. of peaches.
All weights are in whole pounds, no fractions.
For the weight of peaches, the tens digit is equal to the ones
digit (i.e. J=K)
I had exactly twice as much pears as pineapple.
I bought 7 kg of cherries, but was snacking on them so they
didn't all get added in. Still, I put in as many of them as I could
while still meeting the standard.
None of the weights was a prime number.
If I had switched the weights of any two fruits, I would not
have met the standard.
When I got done, I had more than my scale could weigh. I had to
borrow my eccentric neighbors scale. I ended up with 15 stone
total.
Given that harvest of information, I’m sure it will be
easy as pie to figure out the coordinates of the cache, which is at
N37 BX.WFZ, W122 VG.EYX.
Where:
V=J-K
W=D+A
X=D-H
Y=G-A
Z=C-E
Please bring your own pen as there was no room for one in the
cache. Tweezers will be useful.
If you solved it when it first came out - the new final
coordinates are offset from the old ones N+0.073 W-0.019. There is
new bonus info in Certitude.
Congratulations to Monsterblader for FTF!.
References:
[Ref. 1] Photos and captions from the City of Sunnyvale
Library.
[Ref. 2] United States Standards for Grades of Canned Fruit
Cocktail, USDA, Section 52.1053 "Proportion of Fruit Ingredients ",
April 21, 2006.
You can validate your puzzle solution
with certitude.