ζ
Remove all occurrences of the letter which appears twice as often as Z in the solution to Puzzle I before decoding: (spaces have been added for formatting, these should be disregarded):
TGATCACCCCCGACAG
CGAACCATTAAACAGC
AGATCCGAAGACCTTC
CGAGCCAATTTACACC
CGGTCCGACGAAAGAT
CGGACGATACCTTTTCC
TCAAACCATTTACCACA
ATAATACGGACACCTC
GGAAACCAAAATGACA
GCACCTTCCAAAAGAC
AGGAAGAGGAAACTCC
GCCTAGCCCGGAAACT
CGAAGAGCGGCCTTTC
AAACCATACCAAGAAT
ACTCCAACACCGAACG
AACCCAGCAGACCTAC
AAACGGAGACCGGAAA
GCAACCTCAGCATTGAG
GCCCAGAGACAGCCGG
CCGGAGAGAAGCGAATA
CTTTTCGCAACTCTCCCA
AGCCGCCTTCCTCCACC
AAGTGACAGGCCCAGAC
GGCTCGCCGCCAGAACC
GACGGACAGCACCATAA
TACCACAAGGACGAGGA
AGTAGGGAGCCAAGGCC
CGACAGCACTCCCTCAA
TACCAACCTCCGACGGA
CAGCACCCGGCCGGAAACCT
Comments
Hi,
About the crossword puzzle reference...
Do you want us to count up the number of Z's in the grid or the number of Z's in the answers to the clues?...
Each box represents two clues...
Posted by: Jim from Minnesota | Oct 31, 2006 12:44:00 PM
The number of Z's in the grid, but it makes no difference. There will still be twice as many of the other letter, either way.
Posted by: Will Nediger | Oct 31, 2006 2:19:18 PM
I have got to say that this is the clue that is "troubling" me the most. I'm hoping for an AHA moment somewhere in the future!
Posted by: Paula | Nov 1, 2006 2:05:24 PM
AHA!...
Posted by: Jim from Minnesota | Nov 3, 2006 9:00:52 PM
Am I the only one not seeing the picture with this clues. I know haw many Z's I have.
I've thought of ways to reformat. But there are endless ways.
AAAAAAAAAHHH!
Posted by: Paula | Nov 21, 2006 9:06:49 AM
That was NOT an AHA - it was a response to pulling my hair out on this one. :-)
Posted by: Paula | Nov 21, 2006 9:08:06 AM
There is no picture to be seen. The instructions say to remove all instances of a certain letter, then decode. I solved this one relatively quickly, and there are no mistakes in the clue.
Posted by: Alan Lemm | Nov 21, 2006 11:59:33 AM
Paula -- Take the words IN THE SOLUTION TO PUZZLE 1 and move them, set off by commas, between WHICH and APPEARS. This might clear up the confusion, if it's the same as I first had with this clue.
Posted by: Bob Lodge | Nov 21, 2006 3:22:22 PM
Paula, you are not the only one still agonizing over this one. On my first glance, I thought I knew right away how to "decode" this (it looked very similar to something I used to do for a living), but that method of "decoding" yielded garbage.
Posted by: Susy | Nov 21, 2006 3:50:54 PM
As soon as I read Alan's comment and reread the question I discovered that I was misinterpreting the directions. So I fixed my dilema, exactly as Bob describes. BUT I still haven't solved it. But now I have something new to stare at!
Posted by: Paula | Nov 21, 2006 5:18:37 PM
Ok Will - What is this one?
It has been driving me crazy for too long.
Posted by: Paula | Jan 2, 2007 3:18:56 PM
Ok Will - what is this one?
It's been torturing me for too long!
Posted by: Paula | Jan 2, 2007 3:21:03 PM
The system sent me an error message so I reposted. Didn't mean to say it twice - bet you all thought I was literaly driven crazy...
Posted by: Paula | Jan 2, 2007 3:24:23 PM
SOLUTION - Removing all the T’s, grouping the remaining letters into groups of three, and decoding (AAA=a, AAC=b, ..., GGC=z) reveals the clue: “Tenth-smallest number of a type named after a mathematician whose surname can be spelled by traveling through seven connecting rooms of the Aedificium in The Name of the Rose.” The mathematician is Sophie Germain, and the tenth-smallest Germain prime is 89.
Posted by: Will Nediger | Jan 2, 2007 4:46:44 PM
OK -
Now my question to those who solved this, how did you figure out this code? I tried the DNA stuff and some other "methods" but I didn't think to group by 3's for any method other than the DNA.
Posted by: Paula | Jan 2, 2007 5:08:27 PM
After erasing all instances of one letter (T), you are left with a code involving three letters (A, C, & G). So every letter has one of three possibilities. Every two letters has nine possibilities (AA, CC, GA ...), and every three letters has twenty-seven possibilities (AAA, GCG, CAG ...). Twenty-seven is just one greater than the number of letters in the English alphabet. I might have figured this out on my own, but I've seen base 3 cryptograms before, so this one wasn't so hard to figure out, although in previous codes I've encountered, 000 usually equals a space, while 001 = A, 002 = B, 010 = C, down to 222 = Z. This cryptogram had no spaces, and 000 = A, 001 = B, and so forth, but it didn't take me long to figure that out. After that, it was a simple matter of finding the Aedificium map online, then cycling through the possible room sequences until I got "Germain". I had never heard of Sophie Germain primes before this. Wikipedia is a great tool.
Posted by: Alan Lemm | Jan 2, 2007 6:07:19 PM
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