01 What is Rotation?

A rotation is a substitution of letters within an alphabet by shifting them a defined number of places. The shift is cyclic, i.e. when the boundary is crossed upwards, the shift continues at the beginning.

In geocaching the following rotations are common:

  • ROT-13: Shifting of letters by 13 digits: ABC → NOP
  • ROT-5: Shifting of digits by 5 digits: 012 → 567
  • ROT-18: Combination of ROT-13 and ROT-5
  • ROT-47: Shifts characters by 47 digits over all ASCII characters from 33 – 126: A → p, L → {, a → 2

GC Wizard allows rotation by arbitrary digits in addition to these standard rotations.