User:David Souther/sandbox/Main Page

From Geohashing

Welcome

Welcome to the Geohashing Community Wiki. Geohashing is a Spontaneous Adventure Generator, brought to you by the xkcd webcomic.
The Algorithm, as shown in xkcd comic #426.

xkcd comic #426, published on 21 May 2008, contains an algorithm that generates random coordinates around the world every day. Everyone in a given region gets the same set of coordinates. As such, these coordinates can be used as destinations for adventures, à la Geocaching, or for local meetups.

For a little more interactive discussion, consider joining the #geohashing IRC channel on Foonetic.

How it works

Play with the coordinate calculator at geohashing.info. All coordinates refer to the WGS84 datum.

Every day, the algorithm generates a new set of coordinates for each 1°×1° latitude/longitude zone (known as a graticule) in the world. They are randomly placed -- they could be in the forest, in a city, on a mountain, or even in the middle of a lake! You can use this wiki to document the daily coordinates (geohashes) you've been to.

Unless you can accurately predict the stock market down to the penny, you can't figure out what the coordinates will be ahead of time. You can first calculate a weekday's coordinates at about 09:30 US Eastern Time, and on Friday you can calculate the coordinates for each day that weekend.

When visiting geohash locations, please respect the area you are visiting. Absolutely do not litter or otherwise disturb the natural integrity of the area. However, if possible, creating some kind of a marker out of nearby materials (i.e. cairn of stones, blair-witch-style 'stick figures', etc.) is encouraged.

Disclaimer: When any coordinates generated by the Geohashing algorithm fall within a dangerous area, are inaccessible, or would require illegal trespass, DO NOT attempt to reach them. Please research each potential location before attempting to access it. You are expected to use proper judgment in all cases and are solely responsible for your own actions. See more guidelines.

Official xkcd meetups

Felix Dance, Mdixon4, Rhonda, Lachie and Stevage meet up at the 28 December 2015 (a Monday) coordinates for Bairnsdale, VIC, Australia.

Based on the title text from the comic that established geohashing, the "official" meetup day was interpreted as being Saturday; that is, the day one would have the best chance of meeting others -- see also Mouseover Day. Additionally it was decided through convention that a good meeting time would be 16:00 local time (4:00 P.M.)¹

However, neither of these are hard rules, and they were formulated at a very different early stage in the sport's history. Nowadays and for quite awhile actually, any date or time can be good (or bad, depending on how many other hashers are near you) for meeting up, especially if prearranged. Note that this only applies to that day’s normal local geohash or globalhash coordinates, if you try to go to an alternate location without telling anyone else, it's highly unlikely you'd meet up with a hasher there (obviously).

¹Or earlier if that would be too close to sunset during the winter, or other quirks of temporal tradition; see your local graticule page for consensus there.

Server Time: Tuesday 19 March 2024, 11:08 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Coordinates

The coordinates for the next Saturday meetups, scheduled for 23 March 2024, will be based on the Dow’s opening price published at 09:30 EDT (13:30 UTC) on Friday 22 March. See timeanddate.com to convert this time to your local time zone.

Date West of –30° East of –30°
Thu 10 Jul 2008 .3372663, .9466538 .9778606, .9410166
Wed 9 Jul 2008 .3372663, .9466538 .9778606, .9410166
Tue 8 Jul 2008 .3372663, .9466538 .9778606, .9410166
Mon 7 Jul 2008 .3372663, .9466538 .9778606, .9410166
Sun 6 Jul 2008 .3372663, .9466538
Sat 5 Jul 2008 .3372663, .9466538
Fri 4 Jul 2008 .3372663, .9466538
Thu 3 Jul 2008 .3372663, .9466538 .9778606, .9410166

View expedition archives for: March 2024 | February 2024 | January 2024 | More...

Find others in your area!

Want to find geohashers in your local area? See Category:Active graticules for a list of graticules with active users in them.
  • Don't see your home area? Follow the format and create a page for it! We'd love to have you!
  • An interactive map is available for Google Earth or on Google Maps.
  • You can also attach your photos to this Google Maps layer.

Implementations

A full list of reference and practical implementations can be found on the Implementations page.

Gallery of Recent Expeditions