User:Tongs

A field ploughed with straw...

The Tongs is a name for a group of friends who go geohashing in the Cambridge (UK) graticule, but who might stray into the Northampton graticule sometimes. We usually aim to visit hashpoints nearish us at 4pm local time, if it looks like there's something interesting in the area or if people want to meet up (we monitor our talk page, so leave us a message if you do).

Please feel free to say hello using email.

News

2016-03-14 (Pi day): The Tongs bought a Holux M241 GPS logger to record more and better tracklogs.

Expeditions

The Tongs are at Level 3.

n	×	log₂n	log_ϕn	FL(n)	Date	Day	Who				DA	Met	Grat	Where	County	Rating	Files
1	-	0.000	0.000	2	2014-08-17	Sun	🐷		🐢	🐻	-	-	52,0	A ploughed field just south of the A14.	Cambs	-	📷
2	1	1.000	1.440	3	2014-08-23	Sat	🐷	🐵	🐢	🐻	-	-	52,0	A field on a hillside near the village of Shaftenhoe End.	Herts	-	📷
3	2	1.585	2.283	4	2014-08-23	Sat	🐷	🐵	🐢	🐻	-	-	52,-0	Just off a track by the side of a field near Therfield.	Herts	-	📷
4	-	2.000	2.881	4	2014-09-28	Sun	🐷	🐵	🐢	🐻	-	-	52,0	In a field near Vestey Wood, near the Gog Magog Hills.	Cambs	-	-
5	-	2.322	3.345	5	2015-08-30	Sun	🐷	🐵	🐢	🐻	-	-	52,0	In the northeastern corner of the grounds of Oxbrough Hall.	Norfolk	-	📷
6	-	2.585	3.723	5	2015-09-27	Sun	🐷	🐵	🐢	🐻	-	-	52,0	In a field between Haddenham and Wilburton.	Cambs	★★★★★	📷
7	-	2.807	4.044	5	2015-09-29	Tue	🐷	🐵	🐢	🐻	-	-	52,0	A few metres off a footpath between Newton and Foxton.	Cambs	★★★★☆	📷
8	-	3.000	4.321	6	2015-09-30	Wed		🐵		🐻	-	-	52,0	A field just outside Ely.	Cambs	-	📷
9	-	3.170	4.566	6	2015-10-16	Fri				🐻	-	Benjw	52,0	A road hashpoint between Oakington and Girton.	Cambs	-	📷
10	-	3.322	4.785	6	2015-11-05	Thu	🐷			🐻	-	-	52,0	A small lawn, just inside the grounds of Homerton College.	Cambs	-	📷
11	-	3.459	4.983	6	2015-11-08	Sun				🐻	-	-	52,-2	In a small field adjacent to Trent Road, Stone.	Staffs	-	📷
12	1	3.585	5.164	6	2016-03-12	Sat		🐵	🐢	🐻	-	-	52,-0	A field adjacent to a narrow road near Great Eversden.	Cambs	★★★★☆	📷🗺
13	2	3.700	5.330	7	2016-03-12	Sat		🐵	🐢	🐻	-	-	52,0	A field adjacent to a lane and a brook, near Harlton.	Cambs	-	📷
-	-	-	-	-	2016-05-21	Sat	🐷	🐵	🐢	🐻	-	-	52,0	Geohashing day 2016!	-	-	-

FL(n) is the Fibonacci Level of n, the greatest i such that F_i ≤ n, if F_i is the ith Fibonacci number. This means the Tongs are at Fibonacci Level 7.

Counting things

Distinct graticules: 3.
Total hashpoints bagged: 13.
Hashpoints until we level up to Level 4: 3.
Saturday meetups we've made: 2.
People we've ever met doing geohashing: Benjw.
Success rate so far: 100%

Achievement planner

If the hashpoint is fairly nearby we could do the hobbit achievement. We should have tough enough feet.

Reverse regional achievement in (52, 0)

Assuming this is at the county level, we need to have visited six counties, of which Lincolnshire is the trickiest.

County	First expedition
Cambridgeshire	2014-08-17
Essex	-
Hertfordshire	2014-08-23
Lincolnshire	-
Norfolk	2015-08-30
Suffolk	-

Simultaneous doublehash in (52, 0) and (52, -0)

About once every 25 years, it becomes possible to be in the uncertainty circle of both hashpoints simultaneously if the longitude is less than +/- 0.000100°. For now, we track the closest distance between two hashpoints.

Date	First	Second	Distance
2014-08-23	52, 0	52, -0	8022m
2016-03-12	52, -0	52, 0	3492m

Map

Visited graticules are shown in pale green. This was stolen from the United Kingdom page. Gibraltar is not shown.

	-8	-7	-6	-5	-4	-3	-2	-1	-0	+0	+1
60							60,-2	60,-1	60,-0
59						59,-3	59,-2	59,-1
58		58,-7	58,-6	58,-5	58,-4	58,-3	58,-2
57	57,-8	57,-7	57,-6	57,-5	57,-4	57,-3	57,-2	57,-1
56		56,-7	56,-6	56,-5	56,-4	56,-3	56,-2
55		55,-7	55,-6	55,-5	55,-4	55,-3	55,-2	55,-1
54	54,-8	54,-7	54,-6	54,-5	54,-4	54,-3	54,-2	54,-1	54,-0
53					53,-4	53,-3	53,-2	53,-1	53,-0	53,0
52				52,-5	52,-4	52,-3	52,-2	52,-1	52,-0	52,0	52,1
51				51,-5	51,-4	51,-3	51,-2	51,-1	51,-0	51,0	51,1
50				50,-5	50,-4	50,-3	50,-2	50,-1	50,-0	50,0
49			49,-6	49,-5			49,-2

Another map

It would be very silly to do a best fit line on this map, so I plan to do that at some point.

This map shows the points we've visited. The opacity of each circle is proportional to the number of Tongs who visited the hashpoint that day. Grid squares are 0.1 degrees. You can see the counties we've visited - Cambridgeshire is in grey, and Norfolk to the northeast and Hertfordshire to the south.

Notes and plans

The tongs are a little late to this particular party, and often hope to meet someone at a hashpoint. Often we have a good adventure anyway.
We'd like to try to do a hash with only a map and compass, not even using a car GPS to get us there. We later found out that this is called no batteries geohash.
M suggested a birthday expedition and doing a geohash on holiday.
We'd like Cambridge to be the UK's most active graticule.
We'd like to have some kind of recognisable tshirt or something so T doesn't need to ask strangers 'Are you geohashing?'. Reflective vests work for this.
We carry an Emergency Fun Box.
If ever the hashpoint fell in any of our back gardens, there'd be a barbecue, and you're on the list.
Monitor the hashpoints for northeastern France each weekend and take the Eurostar or ferry there last minute for some géohachage.

Things we never remember to do

To remember to wear long trousers (and maybe wellies) when we go hashing.
To remember to mark the GPS coordinates of the car when we leave it.
To remember to put a working torch in the Emergency Fun Box.
To remind ourselves that The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 gives the general public the conditional right to walk in certain areas of the English and Welsh countryside: principally downland, moorland, heathland and coastal land. Instead we feel usually feel very naughty and invariably later find out what we were walking on was a public footpath.
To take the picture proving that we were at the hashpoint sufficiently close to the GPS receiver so that the viewer can actually read what it displayed upon it.
To remember to not plan and let the day happen as aimlessly as possible. Visiting the hashpoint is hardly the true point of all this, let's be honest.

Other geofun

We once let off a helium balloon with a message on it and it was found 85 miles away. We couldn't contain our excitement when we got that email. We're likely to do it again with the left-over helium. We found out since buying the helium that it's not good for the environment (and nor are the balloons for that matter).
We're sort of interested in orienteering and Ingress too, but haven't done much about it. Update: B went through an Ingress phase, got to Level 5, and is now over it. Geohashing is more fun.
Now that it's summer, F and B have started going for walks on some Friday nights. Right now we're walking up the Cam away from Cambridge, and will start the next segment of the walk from Upware.
~~Now that it's summer, we've been going wild swimming~~.

Variants of geohashing

Tongs like playing with the idea of randomly-generated plans for fun. Here are some variants of geohashing.

F suggested we could do decihashing, where we just shift the decimal point across one place to give us a set of possible points within roughly a five mile square around Cambridge. We thought it might be just as fun. We later discovered that many people have also had the same thought, and even use the same name. For example, see Decicule and Talk:Proposed_achievements#Decicule and User:Pinecone#An_Immodest_Proposal.
Using the hash to decide where to go for lunch.
F suggested a subset of points of the local area consisting of those found on interesting National Trust properties. Projecting this set onto a unit square in the 'best' way is left as a future task. The Tongs suspect we need someone good at making patchwork quilts.
The achievement of inverse geohashing involves computing a future hashpoint based on a hypothetical movement of the Dow Jones. To get the hash, you have to correctly predict the movement and visit the hashpoint. For a better chance of achieving this, go to as many of the hypothetical hashpoints as possible.
The achievement of geosplashing has two possible definitions. The first is that the hashpoint is in a toilet. The second is that it is used as a toilet. The third (from Sourcerer) is that geosplashing is jumping in puddles at the hashpoint. Some of us think the other two definitions are disgusting, but we include them here for completeness.