Joy I almost gave up on number nine. Tried all kinds of things, including some systems that were way more complicated than any of the other ones on here. Zilch. My daughter said that she could see that it was a palindrome (not difficult, a child just learning to read would spot the way it reversed in the middle) but nothing more. I even emailed it to my brother (acknowledged brainbox of the family) He spent an hour and was stumped. I am still waiting for him to come back to me with an answer.
Then I sat back and did some lateral thinking. All the letters in it were common ones, so it was probably not a substitution system, you always end up with Qs and Xs and Bs all over those. So it was a rearrangement system.
I treated the letters like one of those word puzzles you get in the back of the Radio Times, where you have to make as many words as possible out of the letters in a nine-letter word. I wrote down all the words I could make, which included a lot of short ones and a few a bit longer.
Then I looked at the message again. After staring at it blankly for a while I could make out one of the longer words I had found, neatly arranged in a regular system among the letters. I extended the system to the rest and Bingo! The reason it was a palindrome was revealed then, too.
(The more complicated system I tried was called the Playfair cipher. Worth a look if you enjoyed these. See www.braingle.com/brainteasers/codes/index.php )
Gransnet forums
Chat
Join the conversation
Registering is free, easy, and means you can join the discussion, watch threads and lots more.
Register now »Already registered? Log in with:
Gransnet »



got it wrong, or you will be decipering mistakes.