Seventeen essentials Mystery Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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The rare earths are 17 metals that cluster together on the periodic
table – 15 of them, from lanthanum to lutetium, from a
continuous series – and in ore deposit too. Malleable,
reactive, they’re small ingredients of many big things.
Scandium and yttrium lie outside the rare earth series but are
chemically similar.
Wide-ranging uses and prices
Lanthanum and cerium - catalysts in refining oil to gasoline - are
cheap and abundant. Lutetium, one of the rarest and most expensive,
is in PET scanners. Low – cost erbium is in optical
fibers.
Smart phones
Rare earths help phones and MP3 players emit sound and light.
Neodymium magnets animate the speakers, the vibrating motor, and
the tiny earbuds. LCD screen colors are produced by europium (reds)
and terbium (greens).
Green machines
Hybrid cars would not exist without rare earth elements –
lanthanum for their batteries, neodymium magnets for their electric
motors. A wind turbine may contain hundreds of pounds of neodymium,
a compact fluorescent lightbulb much smaller amounts of yttrium and
terbium.
Medical scans
Gadolinium also serves as a contrast agent in magnetic resonance
imaging or MRI, helping surgeons distinguish diseased from healthy
tissue. It highlights a brain tumor.
And much else …
Such as protecting eyes and beverages from ultraviolet radiation.
Praseodymium, erbium and neodymium tint sunglasses, cerium in
wine-bottle glass promotes absorption of UV light. Some power tools
rely on neodymium or dysprosium magnets to shrink their
motors.
Source: NGM.COM
FINAL:
N 49°01.(1x smart phone + 4x wine-bottle + 2x MRI)
E 020°16.(2x hybrid cars + 1x sunglasses + 1x smart phone + 3x
optical fibres)
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
RA: Qzvgevw Vinabivp Zraqryrwri, Svany-Ph, znff bs fgbarf