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Forum: Chat Room
Thread: Weekend Puzzles |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 206
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Sgt.Joe
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 4, 2006 Post Count: 7219 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I did key in on the words "degree" and "minutely" in the last block. I considered temperatures using Kelvin, Celsius and Fahrenheit. I thought of degrees in a circle, backwards and forwards to account for plus and negative, and I thought of minutes on an analog clock. The "Q" is still an enigma. I have tried different permutations of linking the numbers in "A" with the numbers in "B" and not derived any pattern which makes any sense.
----------------------------------------I have devoted way more time to this than I should have. I am glad you solved it, but it has proven to be outside the scope of my experience. Edit:I thought of degrees and minutes in regard to latitude and longitude but that appears to be a deadend too. They are usually meaured in degrees, minutes and seconds, not decimals. Cheers
Sgt. Joe
----------------------------------------*Minnesota Crunchers* [Edit 1 times, last edit by Sgt.Joe at Dec 16, 2023 11:17:28 PM] |
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alanb1951
Veteran Cruncher Joined: Jan 20, 2006 Post Count: 729 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Edit:I thought of degrees and minutes in regard to latitude and longitude but that appears to be a deadend too. They are usually measured in degrees, minutes and seconds, not decimals. For information: Google Maps search works with decimals or degree/minute/second format, and most hardware devices will presumably work with degrees and only use the other format when displaying data.So if the numbers are indeed global co-ordinates, we should allow the puzzle creator some latitude (albeit minute) :-) Cheers - Al. [Edit 1 times, last edit by alanb1951 at Dec 17, 2023 2:16:53 AM] |
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Sgt.Joe
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 4, 2006 Post Count: 7219 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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That last sentence is loaded with information.
----------------------------------------I think I have it completed except for just a couple of items, which for some reason are not fitting as I thought they would. I have found out there are some alternate spellings which are probably more used in Europe than in the U.S. The European spellings have the 5 letters, but the names which I am used to seeing have more. Very interesting. Cheers
Sgt. Joe
----------------------------------------*Minnesota Crunchers* [Edit 1 times, last edit by Sgt.Joe at Dec 19, 2023 4:01:34 AM] |
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Sgt.Joe
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 4, 2006 Post Count: 7219 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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OK, I got it solved, or at least I think I do. This would have been somewhat easier if I had known a decimal could represent latitude and longitude. Until Al directed me on that point, I had no clue how to do this. The other problem I had is my typing skills are somewhat lacking and I fat fingered various numbers a few times and of course came to a nonsensical answer. I would like to post my answers and see if I have anything wrong, but I don't want to be the spoiler.
----------------------------------------Not a spoiler: Since this is not one one of the answers I have, I will note I learned an alternate name for Corsica is Corse, which would have fit the 5 letter criterion. Nontheless it was an interesting puzzle. Thanks for publishing it. Cheers
Sgt. Joe
----------------------------------------*Minnesota Crunchers* [Edit 1 times, last edit by Sgt.Joe at Dec 20, 2023 3:10:35 AM] |
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alanb1951
Veteran Cruncher Joined: Jan 20, 2006 Post Count: 729 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Sgt. Joe,
----------------------------------------Glad you got there :-) Re typing skills -- I ended up in the middle of the Pacific and Indian oceans whilst solving this because of transcription errors (such as missing the minus sign or transposing two digits), so I sympathize! Cheers - Al. [Edit 1 times, last edit by alanb1951 at Dec 20, 2023 2:13:14 AM] |
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Sgt.Joe
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 4, 2006 Post Count: 7219 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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It does turn out the leading zeroes have a purpose. On a number like 5.6, in order for Google to recognize that as a latitude or longitude the leading zero needed to be part of the query. Thus 05.6 rather than 5.6.
----------------------------------------Cheers
Sgt. Joe
*Minnesota Crunchers* |
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adriverhoef
Master Cruncher The Netherlands Joined: Apr 3, 2009 Post Count: 1978 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Dear puzzle friends, here is the SOLUTION:
The numbers in the A- and B-blocks stand for the GPS coordinates of a capital city in a certain country. As it happens, box A1 and B1 fit together. E.g. the first lines in boxes A1 and B1, -33.45 and -070.66, are the latitude and longitude of Santiago, the capital of Chile. After finding the capital cities the final task would be to put the 5-letter name of each country to which the city belongs on the dots of the corresponding line.
A very good job if you found all of them! Adri |
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adriverhoef
Master Cruncher The Netherlands Joined: Apr 3, 2009 Post Count: 1978 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Of course, fitting box A1 and B1 together was a dead giveaway, but it turned out that after sorting all GPS-coordinates from top to bottom and putting each block of 5 lines in two separate boxes (by separating latitude and longitude), naming them A and B and numbering them, then sorting the five B-boxes independently, puts the B1-box at the top in the intitial puzzle.
So Santiago was the most southern capital of the bunch and Rome the most northern capital when it comes to countrynames that are exactly 5 letters long. When you sort the names of the capitals, it turns out that Accra, capital of Ghana, is the first one and Yaren is the last one. Regarding Yaren, according to Wikipedia,"Yaren (and sometimes Aiwo) is usually listed as the capital of Nauru. However, this is incorrect; the republic does not have cities nor an official capital. Yaren is accepted by the United Nations as the "main district"" and "It is the de facto capital of Nauru". This is remarkable, since in the Netherlands, citing Wikipedia again, "The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of the Netherlands is Amsterdam, The Hague has been described as the country's de facto capital." Thank you all for participating! Adri |
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alanb1951
Veteran Cruncher Joined: Jan 20, 2006 Post Count: 729 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Adri,
----------------------------------------Thanks for the answer and the comments. During solving, it was interesting to find out the names of the cities/towns within some of the countries where I had no idea what might pass for a "capital city"... In a couple of cases, my co-ordinate search came up with different place-names, but checking the country data elsewhere came up with what you've listed. Once again, thanks for the puzzle and a chance to [possibly] learn a bit about some interesting places during the search! Cheers - Al. P.S. Congratulations on finding enough countries with 5-letter names in English -- did you have any spares? (said he, being too lazy to search!)... :-) [Edit 1 times, last edit by alanb1951 at Dec 20, 2023 11:30:28 AM] |
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adriverhoef
Master Cruncher The Netherlands Joined: Apr 3, 2009 Post Count: 1978 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Al,
----------------------------------------These were ALL countries with 5-letter names in English, there were no spares, at least in the list that I consulted, which was fun to do. Once I had the coordinates, I decided to pad them with any leading zeroes myself if needed, so that I could outline and sort them neatly. The division [EDIT: into] blocks of 5 was just a mere coincidence. Based on the number of exactly 25 countries with 5 letters, I decided to divide them [EDIT: into] blocks of 5 pieces. Another coincidence: 5 squared is equal to 25.   Adri [Edit 3 times, last edit by adriverhoef at Dec 20, 2023 3:34:56 PM] |
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