Rubik's Cache Mystery Cache
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(regular)
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Can you solve a Rubik's Cube? What is your fastest time? Do you even want to try?
Rubik’s Cube
Have you heard of Rubik’s Cube? I first got one for Christmas of 1980. I sat in my bedroom for many hours over many weeks figuring out how to solve it. Once I did I showed my family and one of my brothers scrambled it. It took me another week to solve it again. This time I did not show my brother. Instead, I spent time testing it to understand how to move the various faces around the cube while leaving others where they started. After a month or so I was proficient enough at solving it that I could do so most of the time in 5-10 minutes. Later I bought a book on how to solve the cube and got it down to 3-5 minutes. Now let’s see how you do.
The Cube
Ernő Rubik from Hungry invented the “Magic Cube” in 1974 and patented it. The cube has six sides or faces and each side has nine stickers of a single color for a total of 54 facades. Each side has a center square or façade, four side facades and four corner facades for a total of nine facades per side. The six center facades are actually interconnected on one six-pronged center piece. The relative position of those six faces never change. Each of the 24 side façades is on the same physical piece as the side façade on the adjacent side for twelve pieces total. Each of the 24 corner façades share same physical piece as two other corner façades for eight pieces total. If you were take the whole thing apart (and don’t because that would be cheating) you would only have 21 pieces. I did not do the math but according to one website there are 43,252,003,274,489, 856,000 possible ways for the cube to be arranged. (Even more if you worry about the orientation of the center cubes.)
Background
This cache has been brewing in my mind for a while. I have thought about all the ways I could use a Rubik’s cube in a cache. At first I thought I could write coords on the outside and make you solve the cube to get them. Them I thought I could rearrange the stickers to give a coded message. Then I thought I could use the cube as a decoy and just put the coords inside the box holding the cube. Then I thought of…na, I will save that one. But in the end settled on simply writiting coords on the outside of it. Solve the cube and the two sides will give you legitimate coods for the final. Of course so to make it more interesting you will have to solve the following puzzle to find the location of the cube.
The “Solve at Your Desk” Puzzle
The “solve in the field” puzzle is located at N 42° 31.ABC W 071° 11.XYZ
- A = Number of faces minus 1
- B = Number of side pieces divided by 4
- C = World record single time speed solve minus 5.66 seconds. (Set at the Melbourne Winter Open 2011 in Australia)
- X = Number of different colors a solved cube has on each side
- Y = According to Wikipedia, the rank the cube holds in the ranking of “the world's top-selling puzzle games”
- Z = Number of physical pieces divided by 3
The “Solve in the Field” Puzzle
At the coords derived from the “solve at your desk” puzzle you will find a Rubik’s Cube in a plastic ziplock bag. On each of the six sides I wrote either a set of north coords or a set of west coords. The cube is scrambled and you have to solve it to get the coords for the final. Four of the sides will give you coords that will not make sense, two of the sides will. (Not all the numbers are orientated the same direction.) Now, I know there is more than one way to skin the cat. I implore you NOT TO CHEAT. I do not wish to explicitly spell out how to do that, but suffice it to say you should be trying to solve the cube the way it was intended to be solved. (If you have any questions about exactly what I mean contact me and I will tell you.) I would think one could even mentally try to solve the cube leaving it in its original scrambled state. I would not completely discourage that method since it still takes some mental puzzle solving fortitude to do it that way.
The Rules
Do not remove the stickers or alter them in any way. Do not damage the cube pieces in any way. Do not remove the cube from the conservation area. Do not share the solution with anyone and do not share the final coords with anyone who was not with you when you solved the cube. Do not remove the cube from the conservation area. You can take pictures of it or even walk down to the bridge at N42 31.448 W71 11.053 to work on it. You must scramble the cube before returning it and you must return it to its hiding place before you go to the final. When you post your found log let us know if you solved the entire cube (and how long that took), or if you used a mental short cut, or if you got “close enough to get the answer or if you just tagged along and watched.
Good luck and good caching,
Loch Cache
Congrats to gw0143 and KarenLona on the co-FTF
You can check your answers for stage one on Geochecker.com.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
[The Cube] Va n ubyybj fcnpr
[The final] Abg va gur jnyy