Zooming in on MIT : A Geocache by the GIS lab at MIT
This geocache has been closed. We hope you enjoyed it!

You will use a GPS (global positioning system) and your puzzle solving skills to work your way through the 12 clues and discover a hidden box of treasure. Each clue will help you discover places of information at MIT, while leading you virtually closer to MIT and surely closer to the treasure box. GPS units can be borrowed by the MIT community from Rotch Library (7-238). Note that some of the locations you will need to enter are open during certain hours.

1) Start at: N 42 ° 21.569' W071 ° 05.347. Find the nearest Library door and enter. In this place, find a book called “The Place of Music.”

2) To get the second waypoint, fill in the number blanks of the latitude and longitude using the following decoding method. Each letter of the alphabet can be translated into the number that corresponds to its place in the alphabet. For example, a = 1, b = 2, c = 3 and so forth, with z = 0 instead of 26. You will need to use 3 clues to get each decoding letter you need. The first number clue in the group of three is the page number within “The Place of Music,” the second number clue will be the line of print on that page (titles are considered a line of print for our purposes), and the third number clue will be the number of the letter in the order it appears on that line. (page #. line #. # of letter within the line)

Now follow the directions and example from the poems using "The Place of Music" to fill in these blanks and find the sculpture at these coordinates:
N__ __ ° __ __.__ __ __' W__ __ __° __ __.__ __ __'

(REMEMBER! Every line of letters printed on the page counts! Numbers and punctuation do NOT count.)

Write down the name of the sculpture then use the following code to convert the sculpture title to a Library of Congress call number which will lead you to the next place.

3) Look up the call number you just deciphered in the MIT Libraries catalog: http://libraries.mit.edu/barton. Find the first item (dated 1997) listed on the search results page (by R.G. & R.B.) and open to page 28.

4) Identify the third object from the left on page 28. Find a 3D version of this object near the MIT Humanities Library Browsery. It has one leg, so it may hop around a bit, but you'll find it. To what continent does the west pointing arrow of the compass rose on this 3D version point?

5) Look for a CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) map of this continent at: N 42 °21.662' W071 °05.040'. This is the third waypoint you can enter into your GPS unit. When you find the map, make note of the country whose lowest and highest points are notated on the map. Find a room in the basement of an MIT Library that is dedicated to the topography of this country.

6) In this room, add together the three framed prints on the walls of this room. The sum of these prints is a region with a well known name.

7) Type the name of the region and the name of the 7 th element into the MIT Libraries catalog: http://library.mit.edu/ Title Keyword search box. Find the first report in the list of 4 and look for the errata sheet.

On the errata sheet think about flying to the region with a phosphorus land yield greater than 19.0 on the east side of one of the states. What is the largest city in this region?

8) Find the aeronautical chart (also called VFR Terminal Area Chart) for this city in another MIT Library.

Find the scale and projection information on this map. Fill in the blank digits of this Library of Congress call number (all blanks are numbers).

REF
G __ __ __ __
.C __
.S __ __ __
__ __ __ __
Vol. __

The first, 6 th, 9th, 11 th, and 13 th digits are the first number to the left of the colon in the scale of the chart.
The 2 nd and 5 th digits are the first number to the right of the colon in the scale of the chart.
The 3 rd digit is the first number of the first standard parallel of the projection.
The 4 th digit is the 2nd number to the right of the colon in the scale of the chart, minus 1.
The 7 th and 8 th digits are the second and third numbers in the North American Datum date.
The 9 th and 10 th digits are the first two numbers in the North American Datum date.
The 11 th & 12 th digits are the 9 th and 10 th digits reversed.

9) Find a set of maps at this call number in another Library. Go to page 81. Derive the three letter acronym, which stands for the name of one of the MIT Libraries from the southernmost labeled feature on the map. Here is a poem to help.

The third is first, and the first in threes
And pray you'll see
that the other rhymes with thee

This three letter acronym represents the first letter of each word in the name of the next library you must visit.

10) In a drawer of MIT slides labeled "USA, MA, Cambridge 5" (on the left), find a slide featuring a smiling librarian next to the door (slide # A21884). The slide is in front of a label titled "STOCKHOLDERS MTG RM." The location of your next stop has a similar number on the door, but put a 3 at the beginning and multiply the last two digits by 3.