Need help with problem related to latitude and longitude coordinates

Question

My husband's boss is taking all the sales team to a team building event in Denver, Colorado and he has been sending hints for the last week. Now he has sent a math problem and told us it has something to do with Latitude and longitude. I have worked on this problem for days. If you could help that would be wonderful. Thanks in advance.

Here is the problem: $$\begin{align}13&+(-459.67)+(45-45-90)+14.0067(2)\\ &+1,000(2)+10^9+(-459.67)\\ &+(100^2 \times 2)+((101)^2)^2\end{align}$$

The bossman said it doesn't necessarily have to do with just the answer. Please someone put me out of my misery! ha!

Answer 1

If you just feed it to Wolfram Alpha, 1.1040823519434 × 10^9 comes back. This is 1,104,082,351.9434 when not in scientific notation. This assumes the (2)s are to be multipliers, not squares. Usually latitude/longitude in the US has fifteen digits, DD MM.MMM in latitude first, followed by DDD MM.MMM in longitude (at least the geocachers use this). This doesn't fit that pattern. Google uses DD.DDDD DDD.DDDD, which is one digit short. I can find 104.9434 embedded, which is a nice latitude in Denver, but can't find a reasonable latitude from what is left.

Answer 2

Edit: Based on your edit, the expression, itself, evaluates to: $$1,104,081,432.6734$$

Your comment hints give me a few ideas:

(i) $13$ is a prime number. Perhaps a reference to the prime meridian as a starting point?

(ii) $-459.67$ is an approximation to absolute zero ($0$ Kelvins) in degrees Fahrenheit.

(iii) $45$-$45$-$90$ is how one often indicates the angles of a right isosceles triangle.

(iv) $14.0067$ is the atomic mass of Nitrogen. Pure Nitrogen is found in nature as a molecule $N_2$ (two nitrogen atoms bonded together). This may be connected to the $(2)$ appended to the end of the $14.0067$.

I'm not sure what to think about the rest of it. Hopefully this gives you some clues....

Answer 3

This is mostly based on @Cameron's hints, doesn't quite match the problem in it's current form, and doesn't have to do with latitude or longitude. But:

• 13 = M
• -459.67 = O
• 45-45-90 = V
• ? = I
• 14.0067 = N
• 1000 = G
• $10^9$ = T
• -459.67 = O
• $100^2\times 7 + 101^2$ = 80201

Alternatively, my first thought was the triangle might be for I and there might be an interpretation of 13 as G.

I was trying to coerce a Denver zip code, but $100^2\times 2 + 101^2\times 2=40402$ or $100^2\times 6 + 101^2\times 2=80402$ work for Annville, KY and Golden, CO, too.