perplexus.info :: Cryptography : covert western union

covert western union (Posted on 2006-02-07)

The following 2-phrase, 10-word message was encrypted by converting each word in the original text from base 36 to base 10 (treating each letter as a number).

Next, the resulting numbers were concatenated to form one very long number:

3188696725382955872716533682296997335...
5701338323073559429444643676946239584...
715731974947334325407967846302738783

1) Identify where to place word breaks and decipher the message. (Easy)
2) Determine what each word in the message has in common. (Harder)

Submitted by Mindrod

Rating: 4.6667 (3 votes)

Solution: (Hide)

ENCODED TELEGRAPH INTERCEPTED:
AN ALLEGED FRENCHMAN FUNDED BRASH FROGMAN ASSASSIN.
31886967253 82955872716533 68229699733557013: 383 23073559429 44464367694623 958471573 19749473 34325407967 846302738783.
Each of the words in this message is prime when viewed as a number in base 36. The words "COVERT WESTERN UNION", used as the problem name, also share this distinction.

Comments: ( You must be logged in to post comments.)

Subject	Author	Date
Puzzle Thoughts	K Sengupta	2023-08-09 07:23:33
Congratulations	Mindrod	2006-02-07 21:19:58
Probable solution part 2, spoiler	Hugo	2006-02-07 11:16:24
re: Ten out of eleven ain't bad	Charlie	2006-02-07 11:05:40
The easy part--partial spoiler	Charlie	2006-02-07 11:01:33
Ten out of eleven ain't bad	Leming	2006-02-07 10:54:21

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