Cache contains a geometry set (complete with a compass [not the caching kind], a pencil [the caching kind that coincidentally fits in the con-caching kind of compass], a pencil sharpener, and other brainiac tools), and several puzzle books. Normally I ask people to trade swag, but this puzzle is so challenging that if you manage to solve it then you can take one piece of swag as a reward for your misery and let me know when it’s running low so I can re-stock it. If you didn’t suffer to solve this and you are caching with someone who did, then they get the free piece of swag, but you have to trade. No suffering = no reward! There is also a REALLY BIG FTF prize in the cache. I’m not saying what the prize is, but it would be great if the FTFer could post a photo of them with the FTF prize so folks could see just how BIG it really is. Did I mention that it’s BIG?
This cache is to celebrate a BIG event in my life. Several months ago I embarked on the beginning of a quest to make a career change. Part of my career change involved upgrading some old marks so that I could meet the pre-requisites necessary for qualifying to enter a bookkeeping/accounting assistant program at a local post-secondary institution. Even though I had already graduated from high school a while ago (I’m NOT saying how long it has been!) and had taken, and passed, English 12, I still had to take the course again and prove that my English was “gooder” than it used to be. As for my math skills, apparently the Accounting 11 and Accounting 12 courses that I took way back in high school wouldn’t help me to get into the bookkeeping/accounting assistant program that I was looking at. Oh, the irony! In order for me to get into the bookkeeping/accounting assistant program I had to sign up for Foundations of Math 11, a course that has almost nothing to do with bookkeeping. Have I mentioned how ironic this all is? I’m not done with the irony. Just wait until you get to the end of this cache page. At any rate, I enrolled in the two courses at the local school district’s school for adults, and quickly found out that adult-ed is not the “easy” thing that people say it is. After talking with the teachers and some local high school students I was able to find out that the textbook, curriculum, and tests that I used were either the exact same, or more difficult, than that of the high school in Mill Bay. I was determined that if I was going to suffer under all this math then I was going to make other people suffer with me by hiding a puzzle cache in celebration of passing the course. Why? Because misery loves company! The following questions have been taken directly from the course textbook.
A. Unit 1- Inductive and Deductive Reasoning: This was a really weird chapter, filled with abstract ideas, patterns, and puzzles. Sometimes the questions were like solving a puzzle cache, but with no reward of a smiley. Good news! You get a smiley if you figure out this puzzle. For starters see if you can figure this one easy question. Examine the following pattern and determine where the breakdown will occur:
37 x 3 = 111
37 x 6 = 222
37 x 9 = 333
37 x 12 = 444
Once you find the breakdown in the pattern, use the last digit of that product to determine A
B. Unit 2- Properties of Angles and Triangles: For this unit I had to buy a geometry set (which is in the cache as swag). Why? Because geometry sets are really handy* when doing bookkeeping [*note sarcasm]. Answer the following question: The sum of the measures of the interior angles of an unknown polygon is 3060°. Determine the number of sides that the polygon has. The first digit of your answer is B.
C. Unit 3- Acute Triangle Trigonometry: This unit drove me nuts because you had to project a waypoint for nearly every third question. Easy for a cacher, right? Wrong! The textbook had a weird way of projecting a waypoint (and attempted to convince us that it was normal). Now you must suffer like I did!: The radar screen in the air-traffic control tower at the Edmonton International Airport shows that two airplanes are at the same altitude. According to the range finder, one airplane is 100km away, in the direction of N60°E. The other airplane is 160km away, in the direction S50°E. How far apart are the airplanes to the nearest tenth of a kilometre? The first digit of your answer is C.
D. Unit 4- Oblique Triangle Trigonometry: Funny thing about oblique triangles. Either the triangle exists or it doesn’t. And if it does exist it could have either one or two answers. You’re just going to have to stumble your way through this question to find out which type it is. Oh, yes. And it’s another question with weird projections: An airplane passes over an airport and continues flying on a heading of N70°W for 3km. The airplane then turns left and flies another 2 km until the airport is exactly due east of its position. What is the distance between the airplane and the airport, to the nearest tenth of a kilometre? If the triangle doesn’t exist, then the D=0 If the triangle does exist, then D= the digit after the decimal. Of course, if the triangle exists there could be two answers, so be sure you use the correct one for D.
E. Unit 5- Statistical Reasoning: I have to admit that some parts of this unit could come in handy for bookkeeping, like figuring out annual sales, etc. Here is an easy question for you: Here are the following class marks on a pop quiz (thank goodness I never had one of those!): 2, 4, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 9, 9, 9, 10, 10, 11, 11, 11, 12, 12, 13, 13, 15. Round your answer to one decimal place. You will notice that the mean, median, and standard deviation (based on grouped data) all share a common digit. That common digit is your answer to E.
F. Unit 6- Systems of Linear Inequalities: Get out the graphing paper, folks, this skin-crawling question is going to be fun! This is a question that all entomologists ponder when they are faced with the following situation: Ed found spiders and crickets in his storage room. There were 20 or fewer spiders and 20 or more crickets. There were 45 or fewer crickets and spiders in total. What combination of spiders and crickets would have the greatest number of legs? Add those two numbers together and subtract 80, then add 35. Your answer is F.
G. Unit 7- Quadratic Functions and Equations: I have to admit that I struggled with this unit the most and only got a B on it. My math teacher had a philosophy that if he didn’t like the question then he would skip it. As much as I’d love to adopt that position, this cache isn’t called “Misery Loves Company” for nothing. Here is your question: A fishing boat leaves a dock at noon and travels due west at 40 km/h. A second boat leaves the same dock 20 minutes later and travels due south at 51 km/h. At what time, to the nearest minute, will the two boats be 116 km apart? The second digit in your answer is G.
H. Unit 8-Proportional Reasoning. Good news! You have reached the final unit and it’s super-easy! A manufacturer has created a spherical model of the Moon, using a scale ratio of 1:11580000. The model fits exactly into a cubic box with a volume of 27000 cm³. Determine the volume of the moon (in cubic km). The 5th digit of your answer will be H.
By the way, my final English mark was 93%, and my final math mark was 95%. Now that’s an upgrade!
One more thing… Remember how I said earlier that I wasn’t done with the irony? Well, I found out only 3 weeks before writing the final test in this math course that the post-secondary institution that I was looking at had just dropped the Foundations of Math 11 prerequisite. Now THAT’S misery!
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.
If you are trying to solve this puzzle and experiencing misery with geochecker then feel free to email me. I can't help you solve the questions, but I can check your individual answers for accuracy. After all, I had an answer key in the back of my math textbook, so it's only fair.
Blitz 2013 Winner
Best Puzzle Cache
Vancouver Island South
British Columbia Geocaching Association