Find Buried Pirate Treasure

Geometry Level 5

Captain Teaches Kidd, a fearsome and paranoid pirate of the 1600s, repeatedly buries all his treasure in a single secret spot on a remote uninhabited island.

On that island, there are two big trees, A A , and B B , which are 1050 paces apart. He has long relied on a bizarrely complicated way to locate point D D where his massive hoard is buried, which involves 4 men walking on 4 different paths, as follows:

  • First, he has 2 men, one walking from point A A the other from point B B , more or less towards each other, until the man from A A has traveled 294 paces and the other from B B has traveled 392 paces, and they are now 490 paces apart. Then both change directions and the first man walks 455 more paces and the other walks 525 more paces before they both meet at point C C . Here, they erect a temporary marker.

  • Next, he has 2 more men, one walking from point A A the other from point B B , until

  • (Note: all values marked x i {x}_{i} are missing and no longer known)

  • the man from point A A has traveled x 1 {x}_{1} paces to where he is at x 2 {x}_{2} paces distant from the marker at point C C , thence he continues in a different direction until he has traveled 273 paces to where he at x 3 {x}_{3} paces from the marker at point C C , while

  • the man from point B B has traveled x 4 {x}_{4} paces to where he is at x 5 {x}_{5} paces distant from the marker at point C C , thence he continues in a different direction until he has traveled x 6 {x}_{6} paces to where he at 364 paces from the marker at point C C , after which

  • the man from point A A continues another x 7 {x}_{7} paces in a new direction and the man from point B B continues another x 8 {x}_{8} paces in a new direction until they both meet at point D D , where the treasure is buried.

Originally, Captain Teaches Kidd had all the figures written down in different places, which he never shows all at once to anybody, but---alas!---in some terrible battle at sea in which his ship was sunk, he lost his papers and was only able to remember some of the numbers as follows (crude map not drawn to scale, dark lines indicates the 4 different paths A C , B C , A D , B D AC, BC, AD, BD ).

where the question marks indicate numbers that have been lost. Can you help him find his hoard again, by computing the straight-line distances A D AD and B D BD in paces?

Enter your answer as the sum A D + B D AD+BD .


The answer is 2100.

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1 solution

Michael Mendrin
Jul 2, 2016

The Roberts-Chebyschev Theorem of cognate linkages states that the 3 3 triangles as well as Δ A B D \Delta ABD need to be all similar for the location of point D D to be independent of the location of point C C (which can vary!), if all the other path lengths (or links) are fixed. Hence, if A B = 1050 AB=1050 , then

A D = 455 1050 490 = 975 AD=455\dfrac{1050}{490}=975

B D = 525 1050 490 = 1125 BD=525\dfrac{1050}{490}=1125

And so the sum A D + B D AD+BD is

975 + 1125 = 2100 975+1125=2100

If point A A is the origin ( 0 , 0 ) \left(0,0\right) and point B B is ( 1050 , 0 ) \left(1050,0\right) then point D D is ( 375 , 900 ) \left(375,900\right) . Point C C can be anywhere on a closed curve locus. Note that

375 2 + 900 2 = 975 \sqrt{{375}^{2}+{900}^{2}}=975

( 1050 375 ) 2 + 900 2 = 1125 \sqrt{{\left(1050-375\right)}^{2}+{900}^{2}}=1125

In addition to the fact all triangles are similar, all quadrilaterals are parallelograms as per Roberts-Chebyshchev Theorem. The rest of the missing lengths can be computed from known lengths using the Cayley Diagram, shown as follows

When A B = 1050 AB=1050 , a typical configuration would then be like

Great formulation! Reminded me of a 'Find the Treasure' puzzle from George Gamov's '1, 2, 3, . . . infinity', where he uses complex conjugates. This one is even more clever :-)

I could see this had one degree of freedom - both geometrically and kinematically (10 links, 13 pins) and yet it had to be immovable, so kept going in knots with Kennedy's theorem and all the instantaneous centers, trying to find a configuration that would try to tear point D apart and thus becoming immovable. Then spotted the three triangular links meeting in a vertex and yet moving together and thought of the cognates!

Would use this to teach cognates.

@Niranjan Khanderia you got to see this sir!

Ujjwal Rane - 4 years, 10 months ago

do you know where i can find a proof of the theorem you stated in the beginning? the one called Roberts-Chebyschev Theorem of cognate linkages. thanks!!!

Willia Chang - 4 years, 11 months ago

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You can look up this one Four-bar and slider crank cognates Roberts-Chebyschev Theorem . It gives a brief proof. I'll see if I can find a fuller exposition and come back here, after I've had my 4th of July.

Michael Mendrin - 4 years, 11 months ago

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oh...i look forward to the fuller exposition. meanwhile, enjoy your break!!!!

Willia Chang - 4 years, 11 months ago

Phantasic! Like a wizard taking a rabbit out of the hat! How can one see that this is valid for the problem stated???

Andreas Wendler - 4 years, 11 months ago

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The crux of this solution is that it's the only way possible for Captain Teaches Kidd to have successfully found his secret spot "repeatedly"---whether or not he was aware of this theorem, which wasn't stated until well after his time.

Michael Mendrin - 4 years, 11 months ago

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