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From Geohashing
Revision as of 03:21, 1 June 2008 by imported>Tjtrumpet2323
The Algorithm, as shown in xkcd comic #426.
Use this tool to find geohashing coordinates for a given area and date.
NoTerminal and Drache at the February 19, 2008 coordinates for Portland, Oregon

Welcome to the Geohashing Community Wiki. Geohashing is a Spontaneous Adventure Generator, brought to you by the xkcd webcomic.

The reference implementation is having a few more minor bugs. Please manually determine your locations by using the fractions below on Google Maps. For updates, check here. --Tim P 03:11, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

What is this?

xkcd comic #426, published on 21 May 2008, contains an algorithm that generates random coordinates around the world1 every day. Everyone in a given region gets the same set of coordinates. As such, these coordinates can be used as destinations for adventures, à la Geocaching, or for local meetups.

For a little more interactive discussion, consider joining the #geohashing IRC channel on Foonetic.

1. For time zone issues in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australasia, see 30W Time Zone Rule for an addendum to the algorithm rules.

How it works

Play with the coordinate calculator at http://xkcd.com/geohashing. All coordinates refer to the WGS84 datum.

Every day, the algorithm generates a new set of coordinates for each 1°×1° latitude/longitude zone (known as a graticule) in the world. They are randomly placed -- they could be in the forest, in a city, on a mountain, or even in the middle of a lake! You can use this wiki to document the daily coordinates (geohashes) you've been to.

Unless you can accurately predict the stock market down to the penny, you can't figure out what the coordinates will be ahead of time. You can first calculate a weekday's coordinates at about 9:30am ET, and on Friday you can calculate the coordinates for each day that weekend.

When visiting geohash locations, please respect the area you are visiting. Absolutely do not litter or otherwise disturb the natural integrity of the area. However, if possible, creating some kind of a marker out of nearby materials (i.e. cairn of stones, blair-witch-style 'stick figures', etc.) is encouraged.

Disclaimer: When any coordinates generated by the Geohashing algorithm fall within a dangerous area, are inaccessible, or would require illegal trespass, DO NOT attempt to reach them. Please research each potential location before attempting to access it. You are expected to use proper judgment in all cases and are solely responsible for your own actions. See more guidelines.

Official xkcd meetups

Official xkcd meetups happen every Saturday afternoon at that day's normal geohash coordinates. All meetups start at 4:00pm (local destination time). If you go at these times, you might encounter other readers of xkcd. Bring games!

In such cases when it is unwise to attempt to access the generated coordinates, the Saturday meetup is postponed until a day when the algorithm provides a more suitable location. Alternatively, when the coordinates fall within a body of water, you can rent a boat and win the Water Geohash achievement.

Active Graticules

Want to find geohashers in your local area? See Active Graticules for a list of graticules with active users in them.

An interactive map is available for Google Earth or on Google Maps.

You can also attach your photos to this Google Maps layer

Implementations

A full list of reference and practical implementations can be found on the Implementations page.

Recent and Upcoming Expeditions

The coordinates for the Saturday meetups on 18 May 2024 are now available. The coordinates for the next Saturday meetups, scheduled for 25 May 2024, will be based on the Dow’s opening price published at 09:30 EDT (13:30 UTC) on Friday 24 May. See timeanddate.com to convert this time to your local time zone.‎ Template:30w View expedition archives for: May 2024 | April 2024 | March 2024 | More...

Monday 2 June 2008

Coordinates

West of -30°: 0.5095264463869317, 0.5215911826227673
East of -30°: 0.3859189793932023, 0.0292893119354716

Arrow4.png Note: The above coordinates are indeed correct. The coordinates for west of -30° were originally disputed due to an error in the reference implementation using corrupted data for Monday 2 June. If you have concerns, direct them to Talk:2008-06-02.

Expeditions

Photo Gallery

Photos from Monday 2 June 2008 (add yours)

Sunday 1 June 2008

Coordinates

All locations: 0.3491079341188037, 0.9162389042702137

Expeditions

Photo Gallery

Photos from Sunday 1 June 2008 (add yours)

Saturday 31 May 2008

Coordinates

All locations: 0.0374870832648067, 0.2812664767643918

Arrow4.png Note: The above coordinates are indeed correct. They were originally disputed due to an error in the reference implementation fetching Dow data for Friday 30 May. If you still have concerns, direct them to Talk:2008-05-31.

Expeditions

  • 2008-05-31 Denver, Colorado - 10 people, easy location for NW graticule. 5 went to dinner afterwards, mostly frisbee and GO.
  • 2008-05-31 Edmonton, Alberta - Extremely rural location in the middle of a sod farm. Nice day, no meetup.
  • 2008-05-31 Paris North, France - Geohash successful within 10 or 20 meters, meetup missed by more than an hour. But I will keep trying!
  • 2008-05-31 Aurora, Illinois - Brett detoured to the coordinates while on his way to Chicago. He was unsurprised to find no one else there since he arrived half an hour late and the coordinates were far away from... everything.
  • 2008-05-31 Encinitas, California - Successful geohash expidition in Carl's Jr parking lot. No one else there except someone sleeping in a car in the parking lot.
  • 2008-05-31 Madison, Wisconsin - Really in McFarland, in an unfinished industrial park off Marsh Rd. Total of five of us in two cars. Hopefully the others will post their pictures.
  • 2008-05-31 Nashville, Tennessee - In the middle of a cow pasture. Successfully reached at 3:50pm local time by Pieater and no one else was there. Waited about half an hour and had a picnic with my wife and puppy before the cows infringed on the meet-up point.
  • 2008-05-31 Fresno, California - Successfully reached by Meggers
  • 2008-05-31 Columbus, Ohio - In the middle of a field. Very nice breezy day, with pop-up storms nearby. Very nice day to go for a walk, dodging last year's corn stalks.
  • 2008-05-31 Frederick, Maryland - Unsuccessful attempt to reach the point by Ciel. Couldn't get closer than 700 feet without trespassing.
  • 2008-05-31 Minneapolis, Minnesota - Successfully reached at 4pm by Joel but there was no one else there. It was an interesting spot and a scenic hike. Older: Seems to be right on the Mississippi. There's a bar near there, Baggans Pub?,3720 E River Rd, Minneapolis, MN. It's 2:31 Central, should be at bar at 3 for warm up and at river at 4 for smoke break.
  • 2008-05-31 Canberra, Australia - Successfully reached by a group. Photos and story attached.
  • Syracuse, New York - Location is in a residential neighborhood in Camillus, near the old Camillus mall. (will show up if others respond),
  • 2008-05-31 Sacramento, California - Location is in a field on the north side of Stockton, between I-5 and CA highway 99.
  • 2008-05-31 Conway, Arkansas Successfully reached by L33tmoomba!
  • 2008-05-31 Cologne, Germany - In the graticule north, 51, 6, Baal, NRW, corner of Güterstrasse and Krefelder Strasse. Kliment was there with food. Noone else showed up.
  • 2008-05-31 Boston, Massachusetts - Just south of a campground area in Foxboro, MA. Successfully reached by two separate groups.
  • 2008-05-31 Chicago/Schaumburg, Illinois - This is the closest graticule out of the four to the city. Not that that necessarily means it is the best.
  • Kansas City, Missouri - In a wooded area between two courts in Blue Springs.
  • 2008-05-31 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania - Lancaster. A bit far.. I plan on going to the Williamsport, PA's hash.-Jon
  • 2008-05-31 Baltimore, Maryland - At the mouth of the tidal Chester River as it meets Chesapeake Bay off Love Point. Could be done with a boat. Landlubbers can meet in the last block of Love Point Rd. where Riverview Rd. jogs. Just the fact that the nearest land is called Love Point should be of interest to xkcd fans in search of love. Dan
  • 2008-05-31 Los Angeles, California - Nearby to USC. It is right on (or under) the 10 Fwy.
  • 2008-05-31 Springfield, Massachusetts - I'll be there at the meeting time. I'm stopping at Brattleboro on the way. If anyone else is going, let me know!! chrisinajar
  • 2008-05-31 St. Marys, Pennsylvania Although I had planned to hash the State College area, I'll be going to this one.
  • State College, Pennsylvania - This one is waay too far from me, but...
  • 2008-05-31 Williamsport, Pennsylvania - Successful. We were in amish country (not surprising in PA) However the field was right next to the public recycling point, so Jon and Frank met Clint with family and friends. Went to the state park a few miles off.
  • 2008-05-31 Rochester, New York - Location was very reachable -- between Macedon and Palmyra, ESE of Rochester -- and reached successfully by five of us! Exact location was on a vacant farm lot, with nearby swamp puddle and awesome treehouse! Click link for pics. danierrr
  • 2008-05-31 Portland, Oregon - Actual location is in the middle of nowhere.
  • Melbourne, Florida - nurbles is bummed out because the new (corrected) location is several miles offshore and he doesn't own a boat. detzold is also bummed and has canceled the party!
  • Toronto, Ontario - Actual location is unfortunately somewhere halfway from St. Catharines to Welland. UPDATE Why don't we use Friday's spot? It's located in a sand trap in a golf course in Markham.
  • Pakenham, Australia - paritybit Will be in the SOUTH EAST Melbourne (aka Pakenham) graticule with a group of 5-8 around 3:30pm or so.
  • 2008-05-31 Cambridge, United Kingdom - New location seems to be on the middle of a field near Safron Walden, could meet at the corner of Ashdon Rd and Butlers Ln which is 500 Ft away?
  • 2008-05-31 San Jose, California - A mile south of Hwy 152, on a ridge with an existing fire road.
  • 2008-05-31 Muncie, Indiana - In the middle of Summit Lake, in a section marked "No boating" by the DNR. Old location was near the Mississinewa reservoir, so we'll be going there to play disc golf as originally planned, around 3pm.
  • 2008-05-31 Surrey, British Columbia - Between two houses in Abbotsford. People from Vancouver should use this graticule again, since the actual Vancouver one is over the water. UPDATE: Successfully reached by four people (see the page for more details).
  • 2008-05-31 Winchester, Hampshire, United Kingdom - We'll be meeting at the Percy Hobbs pub close to the geohash coords at around 3. We'll bring games. See You there! -- SinJax
  • 2008-05-31 Manchester, United Kingdom - Location almost reached, to within 10-20 yards. The area was so beautiful I didn't want to leave. Tommy 01:48, 1 June 2008 (UTC)
  • 2008-05-31 Christchurch, New Zealand - Location is in the middle of nowhere! Lovely tussock highland in the Lees Valley. 2 1/2 hr drive mostly on gravel roads, followed by a 1 hr hike.
  • 2008-05-31 Cincinnati, Ohio - Looks like a beautiful location for a meetup: southeast of the city, an undeveloped field just outside an exurban residential community. Pity I won't be able to make it - enjoy, hashers! - Danny
  • 2008-05-31 Sudbury, Ontario - Located roughly 80km south of the city, near Killarney Provincial Park. We're going to head there for 4pm. Exact site is 1.8km south of the road. Worst case, we'll just stay on the road, but we might walk into the bush. No FRS radio, but I will have a 2m HAM radio on 146.520 simplex.Dtompsett
  • 2008-05-31 Munich, Germany - successfully visited by User:Abunai
  • 2008-05-31 Ottawa, Ontario - Two of us turned up and took pictures of a field in Winchester Springs. Didn't see anyone else. Still, saw some country we wouldn't have otherwise.
  • 2008-05-31 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Successfully reached by Kelly and Emily. Location was up a wooded hill then in a clearing next to the edge of private property. No others showed to either the location or the starting point.
  • 2008-05-31 Lexington, Kentucky - Successfully reached by Steven and Erin. Location was just of Interstate 64 between Lexington and Winchester, near a trailer park. No other geohashers located.
  • 2008-05-31 Dothan, Alabama - Located about 200 yards south of Alabama highway 53, about a mile and a half east of the highway 55 junction, outside town of Cottonwood, AL. Located on private property - took a picture from the road. Hour and a half motorcycle ride to get there. Nice countryside. No one else located. Munkee
  • 2008-05-31 Reno, Nevada - Located in very rugged ranch land northwest of Yerington. Paveman went as close as possible via 4-door sedan, hiked up a nearby hill, and snapped photos. Gorgeous vistas, but the official location required rock climbing gear. No other geohashers located. Paveman
  • 2008-5-31 Fayetteville, Arkansas Made it to the intersection of Little Elm and Richards...
  • 2008-5-31 Richmond, Virginia Shoofle, Paul, and Julie met way out in Suffolk County in a field.

Photo Gallery

Photos from Saturday 31 May 2008 (add yours)

Friday 30 May 2008

Coordinates

West of -30°: 0.8531025811716042, 0.2446021959360299
East of -30°: 0.3227205387098275, 0.7045834347042035

Arrow4.png Note: The above coordinates are indeed correct. The coordinates for west of -30° were originally disputed due to an error in the reference implementation fetching Dow data for Friday 30 May. If you still have concerns, direct them to Talk:2008-05-31.

Expeditions

  • 2008-05-30 Helsinki, Finland - Successfully reached by isani at approximately 15.30. A beautiful forested area next to a road and a lake. A patch of wild flowers and summer cottages nearby.
  • 2008-05-30 Melbourne, Florida - Sadly, the error from the map tool has struck and we once again find that our location is many miles offshore. At least Sunday looks to be in (or near) a swamp!
  • 2008-05-30 Munich, Germany - zb went and tried to get there around 8:30p. Got drenched in rain and got drenched again from the wet leaves and branches in the forest while trying to find the spot. Missed it by about 100 m. Nice long bike ride, but no luck in findig the location. No one else seems to have been stupid enough to go in this kind of weather.
  • 2008-05-30 Providence, Rhode Island - Unsuccessfully attempted by Patrick. Located in private property off Route 44 in Rehoboth, MA.
  • 2008-05-30 Singapore - Successfully reached by r0d3n7z at approximately 17:00 SGT. Couldn't gain access to the secured compound, but managed to get pretty close.
  • 2008-05-30 Atlanta, Georgia - Conveniently located at the end of a road to an office park. Successfully reached around 23:30 EDT. Took pictures.
  • 2008-05-30 San Francisco, California - The nearest point not on private property was reached and photographed by Relsqui at 7:00pm PDT.
  • 2008-05-30 Denver, Colorado - Mike made it to the location after 9pm. Quite a journey! Took more than 2 hours and involved trains.
  • 2008-05-30 Eugene, Oregon - Right behind the baseball stadium at Western Oregon University. Just a tiny bit north and Haschel Cedricson could have gotten the first Couch Potato Geohash.

Photo Gallery

Photos from Friday 30 May 2008 (add yours)

Thursday 29 May 2008

Coordinates

West of -30°: 0.4647015535871903, 0.0341244048140951
East of -30°: 0.2783266160961512, 0.7411420442829273

Expeditions

Wednesday 28 May 2008

Coordinates

West of -30°: 0.6874508850272152, 0.21220759334309575
East of -30°: 0.7104414955290416, 0.11273220876887029

Expeditions

Tuesday 27 May 2008

Coordinates

West of -30°: 0.20967755786283662, 0.10144168461237785
East of -30°: 0.12536718896775, 0.577110915397159

The first day the 30W Time Zone Rule is in effect. These coordinates became available east of -30° on Friday 23 May by combination of a Dow holiday (Memorial Day) on Monday 26 May and the new 30W Time Zone Rule, which posits that Tuesday's open would come too late in the day for eastern longitudes.

Expeditions

Monday 26 May 2008

Coordinates

 0.673128104319 0.6073080067

Note: These coordinates became known on Friday 23 May due to a Dow holiday (Memorial Day) on Monday 26 May.

Expeditions

  • Brussels, Belgium - The coordinates for Brussels, Leuven and Louvain-La-Neuve are almost within reach. They are on the Boulevard de Lauzelle (the N250 motorway) just outside of Louvain-La-Neuve. We could meet by the side of the road, or very close by in the Avenue Des Clos. An ideal moment of rest for university students with exams on the way.
  • Cleveland, Ohio - In the lake. Probably not a good place to meet, unless you want to win a Water Geohash award.
  • Connecticut - A PERFECT location: Rocky Hill/South Glastonbury. Take I-91 north from New Haven or south from Hartford; take Exit 23 to West. St; turn left @ Route 99/Main St.; right @ Glastonbury Ave. to the Ferry [YAY! There's a ferry, even!!!]; after crossing, you're on Ferry Ln./Route 160; continue to South Glastonbury Center and turn left on Route 17/Main St.; take 5th left onto Red Hill Dr. into a residential dead-end; turn left, proceed to cul-de-sac there; park. Official coordinates are for the backyard of the house directly ahead of you, but for the sake of being nice, I'll be at the cul-de-sac itself. The view from that spot should be amazing, and the ferry ride makes it all worthwhile. 4PM.
  • Copenhagen, Denmark - A great spot in the middle of Copenhagen, right across the water from Christiania. Unfortunately, it's in someone's house.
  • Glasgow, United Kingdom - A few yards off Lochlibo Road in Ayrshire, just north east of Kilwinning.
  • Hamburg (West), Germany - A (the only?) junction in the small village "Klevendeich".
  • London West, United Kingdom - Just a couple of minutes walk from Amersham Station, the last stop on the Metropolitan line. Just a bit of tube hopping for anyone with easy access to an Underground station and a Bank Holiday Monday to kill. Looks like it may be in a back garden however!
  • Manchester, United Kingdom - A field with a nearby wooded area north east of Chorley, probably accessible, maybe farmland.
  • Mansfield, Ohio Located just off a low-traffic country road outside Lexington. Good spot for a meetup.
  • Newark, New Jersey - Off Route 287 in Liberty Corner, New Jersey near UAga National Golf Course. Appears to be a wooded area.
  • New York City In (or on, I suppose) someone's house in Baldwin. (Map)
  • Oslo, Norway - Located on Oscarsborg Festning, an island fortress. A return ticket with the ferry from Drøbak is 70 kr.
  • Panama North, Panama - Right in the middle of the sea... so, I wont go... not really planning on renting a boat today... but next time, we'll have a sailboat rental ready...
  • Providence, Rhode Island - A very quick hop off 95, to Route 3 North (Coventry), left on Harkney Hill, Right on Hill Farm. The map shows a tree jutting into the stream - that's it! Come join the busting of this graticule at 1pm!
    • I am going to attempt the 41, -71 graticule for Monday, May 26th, off Hill Farm Rd. in Coventry. Anyone in the RI area who has a boat - this might qualify for a Water Geohash. As I don't own a boat or possess levitation skills (necessary for Dagobah geohashing), I might be resigned to taking pictures from the very close land! Edit here if looking to meet up so times can be discussed (or is 4:00pm the default?). -Patrick
    • I'm attempting to find a way to get there at the moment, as I may not have access to transportation tomorrow. We (meaning anyone) can use my userpage to discuss any plans. --Yusuke 22:54, 25 May 2008 (UTC)-Yusuke
    • Victor Sorry man, wish I could. Work, ya know? Can you dig?
  • Richmond, Virginia - Directly on Shady Grove Road off of Pouncey Tract Road in northwest Henrico County.
  • Salinas, California - Within the city of Salinas, at the corner of Fern and Alisal streets (just N of the airport)
  • Santa Rosa, California - Inside Robert Louis Stevenson State Park, North of Calistoga. Looks like a hike, depending on where the park entrance is.
  • St. Louis, Missouri - Just west of the St. Louis Bandits Jr. A hockey arena, off of I-40, in Chesterfield, MO.
  • Sydney (West), Australia - A tree in the backyard of a house in Winmalee, near Penrith. There's a park nearby.
  • Toronto, Ontario - Right next to the runway at Pearson Airport. Unlikely to be accessible!
  • Trabuco Canyon, California - Located between Portola Hills and Trabuco Canyon, off of Live Oak Canyon Road.
  • Tucson, Arizona - Located in the middle of the normally dry San Pedro river with dirt road(possibly requiring 4WD) access near Mammoth and San Manuel. Considering recent storm activity, it may actually have flowing water in it, giving one of the few chances of getting the Water Geohash award in this graticule. Apparetly there is a ghost town called Copper Creek nearby to the east of Mammoth as well [1]
  • Vero Beach, Florida - In a farm land west of Vero beach. There is nothing close by, so if anyone else comes bring food, and games!
    • Me and my friend David are planning to travel there as be both have off from work (Yay Holiday!) If we make it we will have a surprise worthy of a great achievement. DMFlash and Kainz
  • Weymouth, United Kingdom Just outside a place called Abbotsbury, looks a tad inaccesible due to being out in the middle of some un-public-looking fields. Anyone with inside information of Abbotsbury and the surrounding area is encouraged to post, otherwise, if there's a pub in said Abbotsbury, that'll do!

Older Events

View expedition archives for: May 2024 | April 2024 | March 2024 | More...

Known Issues

Several known issues are presented at Known Issues. There is an ongoing discussion on these and other issues at Talk:Main Page.

FAQ

Q: Is there a facebook group for my area?

A: Take a look at the Facebook groups page.

Q: I tried to use the md5sum from my unix/linux command line and the hash was not the same as the comic. What is the correct command line?

A: You probably forgot the "-n" (echo without a newline). Try this to match the example: 

 echo -n 2005-05-26-10458.68 | md5sum

The md5sum command may be called md5 instead.

Q: What should I bring?

A: See What to bring.

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