Due to its topography, Dubuque has a lot of steep hills. Being
curious which one was the steepest, I bought a level with an angle
measurement to find out. Using topo maps to narrow it down, and
then measuring and comparing the steeper hills, I soon came to a
tie between two streets: Dell (off of Loras), and Spruce (off of
University). Already having an idea for the puzzle that would be
solved to find the cache location, I picked Dell because it was the
only one of the two hills that had potential cache hiding locations
in the direction of the hill.
Parts of the math needed to solve this cache are somewhat
confusing, so if the cache isn’t found within a few weeks, I
might add some clues. If the cache still isn’t found a few
weeks later, I might post a step-by-step method to solve for the
final coordinates.
Puzzle:
If you were to launch a projectile (ball, brick, horse, car,
basically any noun you can think of should land in the same place
with the given assumptions) from the bottom of this hill, and the
projectile passes the top of the hill at 188 meters per second,
where would it land?
The cache is located at said location.
When calculating the final coordinates, ASSUME the
following:
• There is a 15.7 meter vertical elevation difference between
the top and bottom of the hill. This is a guesstimate from looking
at the contours on the topo map. The GPS altimeter is not accurate
enough to come any closer.
• Projectile lands at the same elevation as the top of the
hill.
• Projectile is slid uphill with no friction.
• Houses, trees, and other objects that might impede the path
of the projectile do not exist. It will not stop until it hits the
ground.
• The hill ends at Arlington. The alley opposite it does not
exist.
• No wind resistance.
Given all the variables taken into account when calculating the
final coordinates, it is likely that there will be a significant
discrepancy between the calculated final coordinates and the actual
cache location. The final location hints have been decrypted to
narrow down the potential locations. If they make sense, you should
be in the right area and on track to find the cache.
Before deciding upon the route to the final cache location, you
may want to look around and consider the options.
The steepest hill (or hills, as the case may be) was determined
using the following criteria:
• Alleys don’t count
• Hill must be at least half a block long. This eliminates
short rises coming up to intersections.
If you liked this puzzle cache, look for my other puzzle in
Dubuque – the sharpest-angled corner. I also have one in
Waterloo, a few near Ames, and one in Ottumwa. Ames is a mecca for
puzzle caches.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on
Geochecker.com.