Tìngäzìk: a Retrospective – ep. 4 “3pluswhat”

3pluswhat

Expected solvable difficulty

• 1sample+: experienced challengers
• 3samples+: most solvers

Level design

This level came as “what3words to plus code conversion” on my brainstorming pad. What3words and Plus Code (Open Location Code) are both notations to represent geolocations, with the former backed by a startup company and its algorithms patented, while the latter is an open format backed by Google. While both being grid locationing systems, What3words, as its name suggests, assigns every 3m by 3m square with 3 words in one of their supported languages, but Plus Codes are defined with layers of different precisions using alphabet and numbers ranging from a 2200km grid to a 3.5m square.

In this level, the following locations are chosen for the questions:

What3words	Plus Codes	Coordinate	Location
///finds.jumped.depth	8G2J2H9H	30.017613, 32.579425	Close to the 2021 Suez Canal Obstruction
///halt.marching.torch	8CHH49WM	41.146143, -8.6158540	Universidad de Porto, where ICPC 2019 Finals took place
///hacking.disputes.reaction	8PFRX8R7	39.990769, 116.31488	Peking University, where ICPC 2018 Finals took place
///prosecuted.amplification.showings	6FG22222	0.0, 0.0	The Null Island, where stuff happens on the Internet but not in real life.

Expected thought process

• Recognize the question is in What3words format (1sample),
• Search for slash slash slash 3 words to find out What3words format (3samples),
• Search for ///prosecuted.amplification.showings and find out What3words (3samples), or
• Learn it from the keywords (keywords).

Then try to convert one sample location into various of formats and discover the answer is a Plus Code.