2.06 Quantum Time Vibrations

Status

::FINAL-READY::

Location

Status: Exterior of Nancy Woods' office, 20 Park Rd, Burlingame

Bathroom: Yes

Food: No

Parking: free street

GC PoC: (415) 475-8463, lab@peachfrontier.com

Type

Optional Puzzle

Plot Setup

• All evidence of Trenchwood Institute and its timeline has mysteriously disappeared.
• Peach Frontier Laboratories has taken its place
• Iconoclast scientist Prof. Chronos has attempted to demonstrate her time machine before an audience of VIPs.
• But it malfunctioned due to faulty key components--four "quantum chronomentometers."
• The malfunction is causing the Professor to bounce around randomly in time from era to era, facing untold dangers!
• The players have submitted designs for replacement chronomentometers--a key step towards fixing the time machine
• The players have discovered the password to Prof. Chronos's supercomputer
• The time machine seems to be mostly working again (although the View-o-Scope remains broken)
• We still don't know where Professor Chronos is or how to get her back – the situation is getting serious!

Props

• keys to bathroom
• 16 copies of part 1 of the puzzle (1 per team, 0 extra copies)
  • Large rolled-up world map
  • One handout sheet
  • First intro sheet
• 16 copies of part 2 of the puzzle (1 per team, 0 extra copies)
  • Bag of strings of various lengths
  • One handout sheet
  • Second intro sheet
• Lab coat
• Peach Frontier Laboratories name badge and lanyard

How To Give To Teams

Doctor When hands phone over to lab assistant who says words to the effect of:

Now that you've gotten us into the Professor's supercomputer we practically have the time machine fixed. Well, except for the View-O-Scope. And without the View-O-Scope we don't know where or when the Professor is located.

However, our global sensor network has just picked up quantum time vibrations in several locations around the world. Maybe they'll help tell us what's happened to Professor Chronos!

One of our lab assistants has set up a vibration listening station out in the field. Please go there now and help us analyze the data. It's at 20 Park Road in Burlingame. If you're able to figure out more information about what's happened to Professor Chronos, call the lab. Please hurry!

SUPPLEMENTAL EMAIL

Research Project Title: Quantum Time Vibrations

Objective: Since the View-O-Scope isn't working yet, analyze quantum time vibrations to find Prof. Chronos

Location: Vibration listening station at 20 Park Road in Burlingame

Upon Completion: Call Laboratory and speak with any lab assistant

Parking: free street

Personnel Required: All

Bathrooms At Location: Yes

Snacks At Location: No

Plot Point to Convey

Chronos has sent some sort of message at the International Museum of Pretentious Art.

Short Description

The time machine has detected quantum time vibrations that might help the players locate where Prof. Chronos hid a message.

Open Time Period

Sunday, 2 AM - 3 AM

Staff Instructions

Your Role: Lab assistant at Peach Frontier Laboratories.

What To Wear: lab coat + Peach Frontier Laboratories name badge

What Your Character Knows:

• Everything in Plot Setup except the stuff about Trenchwood Institute.
• The Laboratory's global sensor network has detected quantum time vibrations in several locations around the world

Puzzles At This Site: Quantum Time Vibrations

Where To Get Materials: GC HQ

Handout Instructions: There is only one puzzle to hand out here - with two parts. The interaction should go something like:

TEAM: The lab says there are strange quantum time vibrations that might help us figure out what’s happened to Professor Chronos!

LAB ASSISTANT: That’s right. Here are the latitude and longitude coordinates of the vibrations that our sensors have picked up. Oh, and here’s a world map to help you in your investigation

Then hand out part 1 of the puzzle (the world map and the page with the lat/long coordinates and the first intro page, but NOT the bag of string or the sheet with additional information like flavor and polarization. The “first intro page” should be attached to the lat/long coordinate sheet.)

Teams will eventually be told to ask the lab for more analysis. They may ask you directly, or they may call GC Central, who will tell them that you have more information. Either way, you’ll have an interaction something like this:

TEAM: I’m supposed to ask you for more data!

LAB ASSISTANT: Yes, we’ve been able to learn more about these vibrations. Here, take this sheet. We also constructed some physical models of the vibrations - play with those and see if they help.

Then hand teams the bag of string, the second intro sheet, and the sheet with more data (including flavor and polarization). The second intro sheet should be attached to the sheet with more data.

Answers: Teams have been instructed to phone in their answer to the Laboratory. If they try to give you the answer, remind them to follow instructions.

Hints: The teams should call in to GC HQ for hints. But if you familiarize yourself with the puzzle and the hints below, feel free to give hints.

Site Close Down:

• Clean up.
• Return the keys and any leftover materials to GC HQ
• Lock any doors you unlocked.
• Return your name badge(s) and lanyard to GC HQ at the end of your shift

Other Instructions:

• Stay in character.
• Except ... if a team says "time out," break character and help them.

Detailed Description

The time machine is mostly fixed, but it's not calibrated, so Dr. When and the teams can't lock on to Prof. Chronos - and the View-o-Scope is broken, too. However, the time machine reports sensing "quantum time vibrations". By investigating these vibrations, the players may uncover a clue to Prof. Chronos' time or place. The puzzle consists of a map and strings which model a set of cities experiencing quantum time vibrations; the answer will point them toward the Art History puzzle.

Puzzle Answer

IMOPADOTINFO (the website for the International Museum of Pretentious Art, which is the "epicenter" of the vibrations and the location for the next puzzle).

Puzzle Solution

Part 1 gives the players a list of latitude and longitude coordinates, plus a world map. The motivation email says "once you determine where these signals are coming from", so the first step is to figure out the cities corresponding to each lat/long coordinate.

33⁰ 52' 6" S 151⁰ 13 56 E Sydney

28⁰ 36' 2" N 77⁰ 13 40 E New Delhi

30⁰ 2' 2" N 31⁰ 13 2 E Cairo

35⁰ 43' 5" N 139⁰ 46 30 E Tokyo

37⁰ 35' 1" N 126⁰ 58 52 E Seoul

38⁰ 53' 9" N 77⁰ 0 14 W DC

39⁰ 57' 11" N 75⁰ 10 54 W Philly

40⁰ 24' 2" N 3⁰ 41 18 W Madrid

40⁰ 24' 4" N 3⁰ 41 32 W Madrid

40⁰ 45' 11" N 73⁰ 58 26 W NYC

40⁰ 46' 7" N 73⁰ 57 6 W NYC

41⁰ 23' 7" N 2⁰ 10 36 E Barcelona

41⁰ 54' 3" N 12⁰ 26 20 E Vatican

43⁰ 16' 1" N 2⁰ 55 12 W Bilbao

43⁰ 46' 1" N 11⁰ 15 28 E Florence

43⁰ 46' 4" N 11⁰ 15 16 E Florence

48⁰ 51' 2" N 2⁰ 20 10 E Paris

48⁰ 51' 3" N 2⁰ 19 24 E Paris

48⁰ 51' 5" N 2⁰ 21 4 E Paris

51⁰ 29' 1" N 0⁰ 7 8 W London

51⁰ 30' 6" N 0⁰ 7 44 W London

51⁰ 31' 5" N 0⁰ 7 22 W London

52⁰ 21' 8" N 4⁰ 52 46 E Amsterdam

52⁰ 31' 3" N 13⁰ 23 38 E Berlin

52⁰ 31' 4" N 13⁰ 23 48 E Berlin

55⁰ 44' 1" N 37⁰ 36 34 E Moscow

55⁰ 44' 3" N 37⁰ 36 56 E Moscow

59⁰ 56' 2" N 30⁰ 18 42 E St. Petersburg

The next part of the instructions says "you may only have seconds to figure out what to do next", so index the latitude seconds into the city name, and order by the longitude seconds. This gives the message ASKLABORATORYFORMOREANALYSIS.

When the players ask the laboratory for more analysis, they'll be sent a second email and told to get more data from the lab assistant in the field; this includes the same list of latitude/longitude coordinates but with "flavors" and "polarizations" for each, plus a bag of "physical models of the vibrations" (pieces of string of different lengths).

The players should

- identify which string goes with which coordinate: each string reaches from the city indicated by the coordinates to San Mateo (the "epicenter"). For instance, the longest string goes from Sydney to San Mateo, whereas the shortest four strings go from Washington , D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City to San Mateo.

- group the strings by flavor (as suggested in the instruction text).

- Orient the strings according to their polarization - vertical, horizontal, diagonal, or circular (rounded).

- Form a capital letter with the pieces of string for each flavor. For instance, two medium-length vertical strings plus two short diagonal strings can only make an M.

- Order those letters by alphabetizing the flavors.

caption

Flavor	Strings	Letter
Antibottom	2 medium horizontal, 1 medium vertical	I
Anticharm	2 medium vertical, 2 short diagonal	M
Antidown	1 large circular	O
Antistrange	1 medium vertical, 1 medium circular	P
Antitop	2 medium-long diagonal, 1 short horizontal	A
Antiup	1 medium vertical, 1 medium-long circular	D
Bottom	1 large circular	O
Charm	1 medium horizontal, 1 medium vertical	T
Down	2 medium horizontal, 1 medium vertical	I
Strange	2 medium vertical, 1 medium-long diagonal	N
Top	1 medium vertical, 1 medium horizontal, 1 short horizontal	F
Up	1 large circular	O

If the players go to the website IMOPA.INFO, they find a page for the International Museum of Pretentious Art, which is the "epicenter" of the vibrations because of the art exhibit there that Catherine has altered (see the art history puzzle).

Budget

Minor

Credits

Erik Stuart

Manager

Erik

Hints

Ask teams what they have done, probing details if necessary (often this will get a team unstuck by themselves).

Part 1:

- It's probably important to find out where these are coming from! Using the map, can you identify the locations of the vibrations?

- There's a real sense of urgency here - as the instructions say, you may only have seconds to figure out what to do. In other words, after identifying the cities, the latitude seconds and longitude seconds are all you need.

- The longitude seconds have every even number from 2 to 56. That should suggest that they're used to order the data.

- The latitude seconds are all fairly small - between 1 and 11. That's suitable for use as an index.

- The correct cities are all on the provided map. Note that if the players don't use the map, they'll probably identify one of the coordinate pairs as Rome instead of Vatican.

- It's not essential to solving the puzzle, but all of these locations are very close to famous art museums (correct to degrees and minutes, at least).

Part 2:

- The instructions suggest that players should try to find the epicenter. Some of the longest strings are probably most useful for this, and using the longest string, Sydney, players may recognize that the epicenter is San Francisco (actually San Mateo, but it won't make much difference for solving the puzzle).

- Stress to players that the physical models (the pieces of string) are probably crucial - and they're physical models; they're intended to be picked up and used physically! There are 28 models of vibrations and 28 lat/long coordinate pairs - they should figure out which model (string) goes with which coordinate pair.

- "Grouped into flavors" is a key phrase - players should literally group the right strings together by flavor.

- Don't take "polarization" literally - it actually indicates _orientation_ of the string.

- Note that "circular" doesn't literally mean a FULL circle. It can mean a full circle (as with an O) or a half-circle (as with a D or P).

- No knowledge of particle physics is needed in this puzzle! Some teams may want to order by something the mass of the quark that has the given flavor. There are no quarks here - there are just "vibrations", so some other order is needed (namely, alphabetical). Also, there's no reason to put the "regular" flavors first followed by the anti-flavors - Antibottom is first in alphabetical order, followed by Anticharm, and so on.

- Players have heard of "IMOPA" earlier from a brochure for the "International Museum Of Pretentious Art", which also lists its website "imopa.info". Hopefully that will help self-confirm the answer as familiar when they find it.

Response to Correct Answer

Over the phone, lab assistant says words to the effect of

The International Museum of Pretentious Art? Let's see - you're right! If we focus our sensors there, it looks like that IS the epicenter of the vibrations! Perhaps Professor Chronos somehow managed to send us a message there! That would fit her because she loves art almost as much as science. And the place would be on her mind--she had just inspected it this morning!

You should go there now. As you saw on the Museum's web site, they're located at 92 E. Third Ave. in San Mateo.

But even if she did leave us a message while bouncing through time, it would probably be nearly impossible to find. She would have to make it so incredibly subtle that no one else throughout history would notice it--otherwise the timeline would be polluted. Well, you should go there anyway to check it out. Email the lab when you're done. And one more warning -- the quantum time vibrations are strong enough at this place that it could be very dangerous to look stuff up on the Internet while you're there. We'll go into more details in the e-mail we're about to send you.

This immediately starts them on 2.07 Art History -- log their time on the online tracker spreadsheet, then send the supplemental email mentioned there.

To Do

• Playest version 2.