71st Netherlands Astronomy Conference, Nunspeet 23-25 May 2016
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The information provided is intended for educational purposes only.
Stay legal!
Please, practice on your own locks or locks you have permission to lock pick.
With some luck it took about ten seconds to open the locks without a key.
To determine the winners of the contest with minimal influence of
random effects the sum of all scores (time in seconds to open a lock)
was calculated.
The next graph shows the individual times in ascending order.
The number of contestants was a bit disappointing, but that was compensated
by the pleasant mood and the humor.
At the poster-site in the main hall of the NAC2016 conference there was
opportunity to practice your lockpicking skills, whether one wanted to
participate in the contest or not. So many Dutch astronomers now have
hands-on experience with lock-picking. In particular the Chinese
unshielded padlock was an eye-opener.
More fun
Upcoming events
•
Buurt Camping Park de Gagel
8-10 juli 2016. The exact time and location of the lockpicking
competition / demo is to be announced.
Lockpicking is the art of opening a lock without use of the orginal key
where the lock not damaged.
Lockpicking is a craft, not a science.
Legal issues
Wetboek van Strafrecht
Artikel 1
1. Geen feit is strafbaar dan uit kracht van een daaraan voorafgegane
wettelijke strafbepaling.
Artikel 90
Onder valse sleutels worden begrepen alle tot opening van het slot niet
bestemde werktuigen.
Artikel 138
1. Hij die in de woning of het besloten lokaal of erf, bij een ander
in gebruik, wederrechtelijk binnendringt of, wederrechtelijk aldaar
vertoevende, zich niet op de vordering van of vanwege de rechthebbende
aanstonds verwijdert, wordt gestraft met gevangenisstraf van ten
hoogste een jaar of geldboete van de derde categorie.
2. Hij die zich de toegang heeft verschaft door middel van braak of
inklimming, van valse sleutels, van een valse order of een vals
kostuum, of die, zonder voorkennis van de rechthebbende en anders dan
ten gevolge van vergissing binnengekomen, aldaar wordt aangetroffen in
de voor de nachtrust bestemde tijd, wordt geacht te zijn
binnengedrongen.
Artikel 139
1. Hij die in een voor de openbare dienst bestemd lokaal
wederrechtelijk binnendringt, of, wederrechtelijk aldaar vertoevende,
zich niet op de vordering van de bevoegde ambtenaar aanstonds
verwijdert, wordt gestraft met gevangenisstraf van ten hoogste drie
maanden of geldboete van de tweede categorie.
2. Hij die zich de toegang heeft verschaft door middel van braak of
inklimming, van valse sleutels, van een valse order of een vals
kostuum, of die zonder voorkennis van de bevoegde ambtenaar en anders
dan ten gevolge van vergissing binnengekomen, aldaar wordt
aangetroffen in de voor de nachtrust bestemde tijd, wordt geacht te
zijn binnengedrongen.
How does a lock work?
There are many types of locks. Here we are only interested in
pin tumbler locks. 1
Here is a simplified model.
Here is shown what happens if a pin is pushed.
Never apply too much torque, otherwise the pins get blocked.
Here is a graph, astronomers
love
graphs.
Here is another one.
2
How to pick a lock
There are several techniques to pick a lock. You can only learn the craft
by practising a lot. Fortunately YouTube can help you with many tutorials.
Turn off the sound, unless stated otherwise.
•
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttHclcJZex4
5m 54s English spoken. Shows how to make a complete lockpick toolset
from three paperclips. (But do not expect it to work as demonstrated.)
The competition will probably be held on the evening of Tuesday May 24.
There are two types of locks to be picked, the original Gamma-brand locks
(red) with 5 pins and green locks from which the even numbered pins are
removed.
Details of the competition will depend on the number of participants and
the time available. It seems logical to start a first round with
raking or picking the green locks with or without tension wrench.
Opening the green lock by raking may take only a few seconds,
opening it by picking requires more patience and dexterity.
Just press the start/stop button on your
timer as soon as possible after turning the lock.
There are two identical sets of locks and sets of lockpicking tools.
And two calibrated kichen timers to be used as stopwatches.
The prizes
First prize
"Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman!"
The paperback not only gives a (hilarious) account of Richard Feynman's
activity as a lockpicker, but a.o. also:
•
How to repair (pre-WW II) radios
•
His exploits in Las Vegas
•
Feynman's Bazilian adventures
•
The Manhattan Project
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project
•
The abysmal quality of American textbooks.
Second and third prize
500 grams Turkish Delight
Sebahat's Turkish Delight (soft sweet candy) is a quality product
fabriqué en Belgique.
Arbitration
If there are winners ex aequo, the Open Source program lottery
http://www.harmjschoonhoven.com/download.html#lottery
will decide the outcome.
The algorithm is simple.
Take the sum of the ASCII-values of the characters
in a list of names modulo the number of names.
Remove this name counting from 0 and repeat the process.
Warning
The lockpicking tools we use here are made from high-quality steel
in the U.S.A. by
Southord
, the leading manufacturer of these tools.
However there are two things you should not do.
•
Never use a flat tool like a screwdriver to apply torque.
For that we have torque wrenches.
•
Do not bend a flat tool sideways.
Pushing and pulling will not damage a tool.
Also a downward force can be applied parallel to the blade.
•
Remember that if you do not succeed in picking a lock, it is
probably because you apply to much force, not because you
press not hard enough.
Final remarks and references
The simularities between astronomy and lockpicking are that in both cases
you can not touch the object of study directly
and that both are rewarding in itself if you have a success.
