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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: The Haunted Apiary (Let Op!) » The Haunted Apiary (Let Op!): Puzzles
[PUZZLE] Patterns in coordinate roads/work in progress
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danteGA
Boot

Joined: 12 Aug 2004
Posts: 65

 		[PUZZLE] Patterns in coordinate roads/work in progress
I'm starting a new topic so that this doesn't get lost, because I'm feeling like I've found the glimmers of an honest-to-goodness puzzle in the coordinates. However, the work I've done is very incomplete, which is why I hope others can help refine the details. Wikificiation would be best, but I don't know if that's possible right now.

Anyway, I started out wanting to find out what categories of things were at each coordinate location, and so I used the links embedded in wishi's spreadsheet to examine the MapQuest locations for each of the points. Pretty soon, however, I began to notice some seemingly nonrandom patterns in the actual locations. These patterns are not overwhelming, but I can't help but wonder if there is noise due to either a) the fact that some of the coordinates are still 'random' points that the SPDR and/or the Queen have yet to prune or b) the inherent inaccuracies in MapQuest.

Anyway, some of the patterns have already been remarked upon: Universities, Malls/shopping centers (and don't forget the many points along 'the Mall' in Washington!), other landmarks (San Diego Zoo, airports). These are obvious, and we can speculate why they are there.

However, what I think is more intriguing in the fact that many, many of the names of the roads (ah yes, the queen is building roads) share similarities. The clearest example is that many of the points are either literally on Main Street (in one case, Maine Dr, which really caught my attention), or are on the 'main' street in the town. Initially I also thought that many of the roads were beginning with the letter "M", but I am less sure about that after going through all the points.

Beyond that, many of the roads are actually numbered roads (16th Street, 1110 Ave), which suggests a whole other kind of puzzle (mathematical or connecting the dots in numeric order).

Beyond that, most of the roads actually have cardinal directions (east, north, south, and west) associated with them. Now, in general this wouldn't be surprising (most non-surburban american roads do), but there are two facts that suggest that there might be more to this: First, there are a handful of "North Rds" "East blah blah" roads and even some "Center" or "Central" streets. Second, the queen has talked before about 'finding north.' So this suggests that direction could important, and may or may not combine with the location of the coordinates on a map.

I am attaching a version of the coordinate spreadsheet with two columns that I've added. In the last column is my interpretation of the MapQuest locations. Some of my locations may seem like a stretch, but I am hoping that they can be corrected. In the next to last column is the beginnings of a classification of these points. You'll see that the categories are pretty blurry at the moment.

I fully admit that I probably was not overly conscientious at the beginning in including information about street directions (W. or E. Main) or cross streets, because I didn't know that's what I was looking for. Also, it is often very hard to tell from MapQuest if a shopping center or something else interesting is nearby. Universities are obvious (look at all the University Drives), but other things not so much. So I am posting this with the hope that other people will want to build on this and make it better.

It's not a solution, but if this is correct at all, it makes this puzzle a lot more like the Links puzzle -- group the right points by 'category' perhaps, and connect them in the right order and all will be revealed.

dante

p.s. oh yea, I apparently was using a version of the spreadsheet before some of the ocean points had been corrected, so you'll see where I've indicated this should be fixed.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 18, 2004 8:53 pm
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Shad0
I Have No Life


Joined: 20 Jun 2004
Posts: 2180
Location: Southern California, USA

 		Re: [PUZZLE] Patterns in coordinate roads/work in progress
Extraordinary work, and I'm looking forward to seeing what turns up upon deeper digging. I feel obligated to point out something, however, since I was once in the "mall" camp myself: The original table contained a coordinate for the Glendale Galleria, a huge mall in Glendale, California. That coordinate is gone, and there is nothing in Glendale now. For me, this works against the mall locations being intentional targets, else why would Melissa/the PMs delete a mall coordinate?
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 18, 2004 9:04 pm
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MNPundit
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Joined: 17 Aug 2004
Posts: 101
Location: Iowa

 		Re: [PUZZLE] Patterns in coordinate roads/work in progress
Dante,

for the Fargo Point, btw, the list is wrong, its FARGO ND not MOORHEAD MN. Moorhead is about a mile east of the coordinate, across the Red River, they maybe used NP because there is HEAVY construction on Main, and the bridge into Moorhead is un-usuable.

So maybe they wanted to use main but realized that the traffic snarls (and at noon no less, wall to wall cars!) would make that functionally impossible.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 18, 2004 10:20 pm
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Rock Steady
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Joined: 26 Jul 2004
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Location: Concord, NH

 		Dante,

While I'm not sure I agree with you, I will add some fuel to your fire by noting that Iyannough Rd. (the 2nd Barnstable coord) is also known as Rt. 132. North St. (the other B'stable coord) runs parallel to Main St, one block north.
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 18, 2004 10:58 pm
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msekolpsu
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Joined: 03 Aug 2004
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 		Does anyone have a posting of the distances between the pairs?

PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2004 10:18 am
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Drakenul
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Joined: 17 Aug 2004
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Location: Wayne, MI

 		Hey, dante, in Ann Arbor, the street at the coord is South Main St, at the dividing point between W. Liberty and E. Liberty (perhaps double importance there?). Don't know if it helps the theory, but just thought I'd pass it along in the interest of info gathering.

PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2004 11:30 am
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thebruce
Dances With Wikis


Joined: 16 Aug 2004
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Location: Kitchener, Ontario

 		FYI - if this helps, I've got a coordinate plotter made which displays the current coords from the site, and visibly rotates through them in order.
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2004 1:51 pm
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danteGA
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Joined: 12 Aug 2004
Posts: 65
Drakenul wrote:
Hey, dante, in Ann Arbor, the street at the coord is South Main St, at the dividing point between W. Liberty and E. Liberty (perhaps double importance there?). Don't know if it helps the theory, but just thought I'd pass it along in the interest of info gathering.


Actually I've been cleaning up my list somewhat and I realized that the critical factor might not be the actual name "Main St." but the fact that many many of the roads (even those not called 'Main') divide the towns into the cardinal locations, just like you describe.

Also, if I'm allowed a bit of IG spec, consider this:

Quote:
For days the Queen has been ordering her to build the most extraordinary number of little roads out from the castle.


number of little roads. hrmm..

dante

PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2004 2:09 pm
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SixByNine
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Joined: 17 Aug 2004
Posts: 34

 		I am liking this idea. the problem is that if we somehow translate all the roads to numbers or whatever, we are still left with a puzzle, which unless it's really easy means we have no way of knowing if we are right.

Still, I am more and more thinking it might be based on the roads.

[p.s. wasn't one on walmart avenue...]
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 19, 2004 3:08 pm
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