06-19-2006, 04:30 PM | #1 | |||
Pro Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Newbury, England
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Highlander #20: Buried Treasure - RESULTS ADDED!!!
As a non maths guy who won the previous Highlander with a random guess - this is really simple!
Using a random number generator I will generate two columns of numbers, ranging from -89999999 to 89999999. These numbers will be converted to decimal GPS coordinates. All co-ordinates will have 6 decimal places. The first pair of co-ordinates that are on land will be the location of the buried treasure. Your task is to PM me with a location, written as a town and the country in which it is located, not GPS co-ordinates. The winner will be decided as follows:
Quote:
Take this advice: after a few beers I sent a PM with a three letter word, and I got to host a game! All you have to do is send me a PM with a placename and the country it is in. Entries to me by 10.30pm BST Tuesday 20th June - that's 24 hours from this post! Highlander Hall of Fame Anxiety #18 BrianD #12, #14 Chas in Cinti #4 digamma #9 Jari Rantanen's Shorts #19 Mustang #8, #15 Panerd #17 Passacaglia #11 Pumpy Tudors #2, #6, #13 Raiders Army #10 st.cronin #16 Toddzilla #5 wbatl #1 Wolfpack #3, #7
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'A song is a beautiful lie', Idlewild, Self Healer. When you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you. Sports! Last edited by AlexB : 06-20-2006 at 05:01 PM. |
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06-19-2006, 04:37 PM | #2 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Catonsville, MD
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Great idea!
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06-19-2006, 08:57 PM | #3 |
Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Appleton, WI
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I'm in....and bumping.
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06-20-2006, 04:53 AM | #4 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Newbury, England
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Bumped to catch your early morning
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'A song is a beautiful lie', Idlewild, Self Healer. When you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you. Sports! |
06-20-2006, 10:29 AM | #5 |
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Bumped again for the western crowd or the late risers
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'A song is a beautiful lie', Idlewild, Self Healer. When you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you. Sports! |
06-20-2006, 03:18 PM | #6 | |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Jul 2001
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Quote:
I've read many of these, just never went to read #1 to figure out the rules. I don't get what the hell I'm looking at or trying to do. Make it more like IWS and give us a quick rundow of the rules might get more PM guesses from us lazy folk who don't want to search for highlander #1, or I guess you could keep excluding us too since we're too lazy to do a quick search |
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06-20-2006, 03:25 PM | #7 | |
Bounty Hunter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
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Quote:
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06-20-2006, 03:35 PM | #8 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Burke, VA
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I'll make the same suggestion as I have in 5/7 of these Highlanders. PLEASE follow the format of the first 4-5 Highlanders and include a quick rundown of the concept and rules.
Summon: Quiksand. |
06-20-2006, 03:44 PM | #9 |
lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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?
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06-20-2006, 04:14 PM | #10 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Newbury, England
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Highlander #19 was the first I'd entered, and tbh I didn't have a clue what the concept was: just saw send a three letter word, the closest match to a randomly generated word wins.
So the equivalent instruction here is PM me a location (in the next 20 minutes) and the closest to my randomly generated location wins.
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'A song is a beautiful lie', Idlewild, Self Healer. When you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you. Sports! |
06-20-2006, 04:34 PM | #11 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Newbury, England
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Dola,
I also saw that while a random guess had a chance of winning, there could also be some logic/maths/thought that might help the chances, but (and this is where my game might let the side down as my advanced maths isn't very good) probably won't. I've got a feeling my game was a bit too structured (although some didn't notice Some definitely did though.) Anyway, we're to the time limit, so no more entries, and it's time to run my numbers I'll get back to you with the results
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'A song is a beautiful lie', Idlewild, Self Healer. When you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you. Sports! |
06-20-2006, 05:04 PM | #12 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Newbury, England
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Just a quick description of the (albeit slight ) element of thought that went into the game – by selecting the range I had every latitude, so the treasure could be anywhere north or south of the equator.
However, having the same range for longitude meant that the treasure could only be in half of the world: admittedly most of this is the Pacific, and land is sparse, but it could not have been most of Mexico, anywhere in the States west of Tennessee, as these have longitudes -90 to -180. Similarly anywhere east of Mongolia/Myanmar was out. Having to hit land, the biggest land mass in the region is Africa, and then Europe and Asia, and this was partially reflected in the guesses, although one or two went for South America, China, or the US, maybe on the basis that if the treasure caught the extremities of the available range, they had a higher chance of winning.
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'A song is a beautiful lie', Idlewild, Self Healer. When you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you. Sports! Last edited by AlexB : 06-20-2006 at 05:32 PM. |
06-20-2006, 05:06 PM | #13 |
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Anyway, this is how it worked out.
I generated twenty random numbers in two columns… -33285300 25088590 4668287 -74760949 62104965 30426266 -88634947 -49388358 -67399962 3888802 -24940734 -53917644 -17112618 -71817089 -40148272 57232583 41635229 -28644332 60487649 32632780 which become grid co-ordinates -33.285300, 25.088590 4.668287, -74.760949 62.104965, 30.426266 -88.634947, -49.388358 -67.399962, 3.888802 -24.940734, -53.917644 -17.112618, -71.817089 -40.148272, 57.232583 41.635229, -28.644332 60.487649, 32.632780
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'A song is a beautiful lie', Idlewild, Self Healer. When you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you. Sports! |
06-20-2006, 05:08 PM | #14 |
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Join Date: Nov 2004
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And the first pair of co-ordinates hits land!
The treasure is buried about 52 miles away from Port Elizabeth on the south coast of South Africa. Nobody guessed South Africa, but so to the other African guesses... Of which there was surprisingly only one. So the winner is Anxiety, with his guess of N'djamena, Chad, a mere 3,817 miles away . Congrats Anxiety - second win in a row I think. Thanks all for playing - apologies to the Highlander regulars if I didn't quite get the concept right.
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'A song is a beautiful lie', Idlewild, Self Healer. When you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you. Sports! Last edited by AlexB : 06-20-2006 at 05:14 PM. |
06-20-2006, 05:24 PM | #15 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Big Ten Country
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Cool game -- I never got a chance to check it out.
Can we get a rundown of the guesses? |
06-20-2006, 05:29 PM | #16 |
lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Drat, I must have missed the phrase "that are on land."
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06-20-2006, 05:31 PM | #17 |
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Other guesses.
Wolfpack - Novosibirsk, Russia St Cronin - Santa Fe, NM Maple Leafs - Toronto, Canada albionmoonlight - Brasilia, Brazil Pumpy Tudors - New Orleans, Louisiana, USA Vince - San Jose, CA, USA TredWel - Urumqi, China BrianD - Lucerne, Switzerland QuikSand - Colombo, Sri Lanka Barkeep49 - St Petersberg, Russia kingfc22 - China wbatl1 - Moscow, Russia Eaglesfan27 - London, England Toddzilla - Rio de Janerio, Brazil digamma - Moscow, Russia panerd - Rio de Janerio, Brazil SirFozzie - London, England FWIW I would have likely chosen something in North East Africa, to try and catch the Africa/Asia border in case nobody chose an Asian country. And would have still lost to Anxiety's choice
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'A song is a beautiful lie', Idlewild, Self Healer. When you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you. Sports! |
06-20-2006, 05:32 PM | #18 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Not too far away
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I see several people joined in choosing Russia because of the advantage given to picking the right country.
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06-20-2006, 05:35 PM | #19 | |
Pro Starter
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Quote:
I promise the edit of the first post was only to add 'RESULTS ADDED!!!' to the title . I wanted the 'on land' bit in there to try and target the guesses - if you did miss this it would have made a huge difference.
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'A song is a beautiful lie', Idlewild, Self Healer. When you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you. Sports! |
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06-20-2006, 05:38 PM | #20 | |
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Quote:
Tbh I didn't realise exactly how much of Russia was in the possible range until right now! Still surprised there weren't more African guesses though.
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'A song is a beautiful lie', Idlewild, Self Healer. When you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you. Sports! |
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06-20-2006, 05:39 PM | #21 | |
Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Big Ten Country
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Quote:
Why would you think no one would choose an Asian country? FWIW, I would have guessed Moscow, too. |
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06-20-2006, 07:30 PM | #22 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: North Carolina
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I just assumed that anywhere on the world had an equal chance. Then I picked a small continent on the hopes that I'd be the only one.
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06-20-2006, 07:42 PM | #23 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Catonsville, MD
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I'm surprised that I was the only African Guess. I went with central North Africa in west Chad. Let me come up with something new and easay for tomorrow!
-Anxiety
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06-20-2006, 07:43 PM | #24 |
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By the way, 18 players and an amazingly elegant idea - good job!
-Anxiety
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06-20-2006, 08:04 PM | #25 |
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: St. Louis
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I thought the ranges listed would cover any spot on the globe, that was my first mistake. Then I figured (somewhat correctly) that everyone would probably pick Asia and Russia for the biggest landmass. So I decided to either go with Africa or South America. I can't believe that with 20 people, not only did somebody pick South America and Brazil, but the same city! It isn't exactly the smallest city, but still that's pretty freaky.
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06-20-2006, 08:05 PM | #26 |
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Location: St. Louis
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Dola: I don't understand people not getting the rules. Almost every contest has been laid out perfectly. How could the first post be explained any better?
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06-20-2006, 09:25 PM | #27 |
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Location: Troy, NY
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You know you deal with coordinates in your work too much when the first questoin in reading this thread is "What coordinate system is he using?"
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