This is a series of 19 puzzle caches in the shape of a question mark on the map of Burgess Hill. All hides are within (or on the very edge of) the urban area of Burgess Hill, but I have tried to keep them away from places overlooked by buildings.
In the hide and seek game of Geocaching, are you a Hider or a Seeker? The Geocaching statistics are mostly oriented towards Seeking statistics of course, but have you ever wondered if you are a net Seeker or a net Hider. What I mean is, have more people found your hides than you have found other peoples. Clearly, in the grand scheme of things, this must be a zero sum equation, but which side of the equation are you? When Cachers first start out, I’m guessing they are always Seekers, because they start out finding some caches before hiding any. If they then start hiding caches, the equation will start to rebalance and eventually tip the other way for those that hide lots of caches.
Lets invent a new Geocaching term. The HS factor. This is defined as the number of finds other people have made on a cacher’s hides, minus the number of finds that that cacher has made on other peoples hides. If the cacher is a “Seeker”, the HS factor will be a negative number. If the cacher is a “Hider”, the HS factor will be positive number.
Here is a puzzle about Hide and Seek.
A fictional Geocacher (Lets call him DonGon) discovers Geocaching on the 1st May 2011. At first he just seeks out other caches. He finds caches at a steady rate of 40 per month, 40 in May, 40 in June, 40 in July etc. By the end of 2011 he has found 320. In September 2011 he starts hiding his own caches. Every month he hides 2 new caches. By the end of 2011 he has hidden 8 caches. When he hides a new cache the find rate is initially 6 times per month for the first 3 months. After that it drops to just 1 find per month for the foreseeable future. So (for example) in the month of December 2011 there are 38 finds recorded on his hides (6 for each of those hidden in October, November & December but only 1 for each hidden in September).
Assuming these Hide and seek rates continue, answer the following three questions:
Taking a figure at the end of each month, what is the lowest value of the HS factor that DonGon ever reaches. Answer -ABC
At the end of what month does DonGon’s HS factor exactly balance out to zero. Answer in MM/20YY format = DE/20FG
What is DonGon’s HS factor at the end of 2015? +HIJK
The cache is at
N 50 5(K+F).(K+E)(J+I)(G+H)
W 000 0(E+G+A).(B+C)(K+G)(H+J)
If as a result of reading this cache you decide to figure out if you are a Hider or a Seeker, please let me know your results by posting a note on this cache. I'm curious to do a straw poll as it were, even if you don't "Seek" this particular cache. The non fictional Cacher Nognod has just checked his own HS factor on 29 June: Seek = 553, Hide = 680, HS factor = +127
project-gc.com
Redirected male has pointed out a brilliant page which can just give you your hiding and seeking stats in a second and then calculate your caching karma. Here is the link
project-gc.com
Your caching karma is another way of measuring your hider or seeker status. Hider = Karma of more than 1. Seeker = Karma of less than 1.