Page 25 - Phonebox Magazine December 2007

Treasure Hunt – find & mystery!
Last year, Great Escape Ballooning set a challenge for Phonebox Magazine readers. Solve a treasure hunt puzzle and win a free balloon flight.
Trying to make it less trivial than say a TV phone-in competition, here was the 4-step test with answers in italics.
1. At the tail end (Dec) of last year a group of guys, or was it computers, discovered the largest prime number to date. What I’m after is the (Mersenne) ‘x’ in the number 2x-1 which produced that prime.
30402457 NB: The largest known prime today is the 9,808,358 digit Mersenne prime 232582657-1 found in September 2006 just after the Phonebox article was published. See http://primes.utm.edu/largest.html
2. Now add the above number to the full date of the first manned hot-air balloon flight.
21111783 (21st November 1783 in France)
3. If you’re a fan of the Da Vinci code, simply add the 8 digit (unscrambled) starting sequence of the Fibonacci code made famous in the book. You know, the one beginning 112***** 11235813 (this sequence would be familiar to gardeners observing natural petal arrangements)
4. Don’t read too much into this, but now add (I told you it was simple) another 8-digit number to wit 26795101 and search for that pot of gold.
This 'fiddle' number ensured that the final sum produced an 8- digit Ordnance Survey grid reference that led the treasure-hunter to the spot.
So the simple sum ended up:
30402457 21111783 11235813 26795101 89545154 (8-digit grid reference to the 'swimming steps')
The ‘watery end’ and ‘a sign of the times’ (see picture left) referred to the swimming steps in Olney where lo and behold the treasure was tucked inside a drain pipe close to said sign!
The first person (of only two people- shame on you Olney, pop. 6000!) to find the spot was Joe Dean of Coneygere who can be seen in the picture below with his sons claiming his prize and flight.
One mystery remains unsolved though. When Joe reached the surveyed spot, the treasure was missing. It remains
unhanded in to this day so perhaps a dog (or mischievous rougue?) has spirited the Flight Voucher away!
Ted Moore, Great Escape Ballooning
The perfect present for Christmas
Birthdays Anniversaries
and other
special occasions
l Champagne Passenger Balloon Flights l Gift vouchers
l Group and mid-week discounts
l Flights from Olney
For further details and reservations ring
Great Escape Ballooning Ltd 01234 241 900 EMAIL ted@great-escape.co.uk
Phonebox Magazine 25