My "Twist" on Mining -- Pt. 2

Apparently there has been considerable interest in this mining situation, so allow me to elaborate on the unfinished problem along with Psycho's contribution.

First, let me apologize for my tardiness in the reply. I had to apologize to Acro first, and she demanded a weekend-long foot massage from me. Hopefully we're on good terms now, so I can continue with the mining matter at hand.

By using the example given, in simple-to-use 50 meter terms, the whole mystery is unlocked by creating some triangles within key functional areas and recruiting that fine man Pythagoreas to get to work. the key areas are as follows -- remembering that in this example, 50 meters is the standard.

While this may look odd, weird, cumbersome, and the opposite of entertaining, all this really boils down to is a long explanation that becomes a simple set of measurements. While Psycho utilized cosines and so forth, the real beauty of this grid exists in the component triangles being made up of 30, 60 and 90-degree angles. The ratios for the respective sides were again nicely assessed by Pythagoreas, with one side being half the hypotenuse, and the other side being the length of the shortest side times the square root of 3. After a few manipulations, we come up with the measurements necessary to solve the question of how far N and how far E. Psycho, you may check my work:

Now that there are numbers for this situation, the application is actually quite simple (as seen below). For any area being searched (assuming the first bomb/probe is empty), the next one should be 75 meters north and 43.3 meters east (assuming that things start in the southwest corner of the area), with the third drop being 75 meters south (the same latitude as the first) and a further 43.3 meters to the east. Once that is done, the process is repeated over and over and over for as long as you care to go. And of course, this pattern repeats in a north/south way with good regularity.

Now, when applying this to your own personal range, the measurements will come out slightly different unless your range just happens to be precisely 50 meters. In my case it is about 55 meters, while Beni's range is probably beyond man's understanding. But for whatever the personal range may be, there are simple ways to input that figure into an equation and get a sweet result that's easy to work with. Psycho has provided one means to do it, and below I am providing another way to quickly gather those numbers.

If my calculations are correct (Psycho...), this will provide a convenient way to at least map out a area or suspect patch of territory. And yes, VinzZ is right in saying that multiple bombs/probes on an empty spot will all fail -- so keep an eye out for someone mapping out a territory you are trying to map as well. A nice comfy spot far away from civilization and other miners will do nicely.

In a subsequent article I will do a little expanding on questions about the necessity of overlap and on how to incorporate finds into a territory map. this is something that VinzZ knows about as well, so ask him if I haven't blogged it (great minds think alike). Until then, bombs away!!!

Curly Twist Bender