Below is a 13-letter phrase with no repeated letters and its space removed, and below it is placed the remaining 13 letters of the alphabet in alphabetic order:
PUBLICSERVANT
DFGHJKMOQWXYZ
It can be used to make a code so that vertically touching letters substitute, mutually, for one another, such as coding GROVEL as BQEWOH. The phrase PUBLICSERVANT was the key used in this encoding.
Below are the plain text and encoded text of three words, encoded using the same type of scheme, but using a different 13-letter phrase with no repeated letters rather than PUBLICSERVANT.
GLITZY QUAHOG RAMJET
CRBFDN SXPJWC LPVHKF
What was the 13-letter phrase that formed the key to this encoding?
From the 2020 Mensa 365 Brain Puzzlers for 2020 calendar, puzzle for January 21, by Fraser Simpson, Workman Publishing, New York, NY.
I started by mapping the alphabet to its substitutions:
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
PIGZKTCJBHERVYWASLQFXMOUND
The 13 letter phrase would be found in order within the second row. "OUND" jumped out at the end, I guessed it would be something ending in "found" or "mound." Took just a minute looking at the rest of it to find the solution - "Pitcher's mound."
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Posted by tomarken
on 2020-02-24 07:35:42 |
Solution
