Given that

232232:1428:23176:321623251421:247:242827:9182212161427141929:97959391

is the first line to one of Shakespeare's more famous plays, what does

144510:819162710182224:20221422621:330:21151028:202415:207:32162812:13151719

mean?

Answer: The two Shakespeare quotes in this puzzle, represented by the two number strings, are the first two lines of Richard III:

"Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York"

Explanation:

Sam's two number strings contain unfortunate typo's: one in the first string and two in the second. Correcting for the three typo's, the number strings should be:

232232:1428:23176:321623251421:247:242827:9182212162327141929:97959391

144510:819162710182224:20281422621:330:21151028:202415:207:32162712:13151719

Each of these encrypted messages has its decryption key appended to it: "97959391" at the end of the first number string, and "13151719" at the end of the second.

Decode each of these number strings by applying the decryption keys, then doing ordinary letter substitution on the results (1=A, 2=B, 3=C, etc.)

Starting with the first string, which has decryption key "97959391", subtract these 8 digits from the number string: 9 from the 1st number, 7 from the 2nd, 9 from the 3rd, 5 from the 4rth, 9 from the 5th, 3 from the 6th, 9 from the 7th, 1 from the eighth, and repeating this for the next 8 numbers, etc.

Starting with

232232:1428:23176:321623251421:247:242827:9182212162327141929, subtract:

[23-9][22-7][32-9]:[14-5][28-9]:[23-3][17-9][6-1]:[32-9][16-7][23-9][25-5][14-9][21-3]:[24-9][7-1]:[24-9][28-7][27-9]:[9-5][18-9][22-3][12-9][16-1][23-9][27-7][14-9][19-5][29-9]

Doing these subtractions and then in each case substituting the appropriate letter by substitution (1-A, 2-B, 3-C, etc), this becomes:

141523 (NOW) 919 (IS) 2085 (THE) 2391420518 (WINTER) 156 (OF) 152118 (OUR) 4919315142051420 (DISCONTENT)

Now for Sam's second number string:

144510:819162710182224:20281422621:330:21151028:202415:207:32162712

This time apply the decryption key "13151719".

[14-1][4-3][5-1][10-5]:[8-1][19-7][16-1][27-9][10-1][18-3][22-1][24-5]:[20-1][28-7][14-1][22-9][6-1][21-3]:[3-1][30-5]:[21-1][15-7][10-1][28-9]:
[20-1][24-3][15-1]:[20-5][7-1]:[32-7][16-1][27-9][12-1]

Which becomes:

13145 (MADE) 71215189152119 (GLORIOUS) 19211313518 (SUMMER) 225 (BY) 208919 (THIS) 192114 (SUN) 156 (OF) 25151811 (YORK)














Edited on January 10, 2004, 6:44 am

Posted by Penny on 2004-01-10 00:53:15