Here are some newspaper headlines:

YOU RUB IT,
SHEEP DUELED WAR STEPS,
AGING BORED TO NUT PRAYED,
FOSSILL WINS A QUIT AND OIL IT

What is the most likely "name" for this newspaper?

A: WARRITIRE B: AT IT SPARED C: TANK CURE

Note: Spaces/commas count in this code, but are nothing in it. Also, treat all words to have one space/comma between the next word. (There is no space before the beginning or after the end of the headlines, or before each possible newspaper name)

WARRITIRE

First, here is the set of base-3 representations of the 26 letters and the _ (to represent a space or comma), following the usual convention of putting the space before the letters alphabetically:

000 _001 A
002 B
010 C
011 D
012 E
020 F
021 G
022 H
100 I
101 J
102 K
110 L
111 M
112 N
120 O
121 P
122 Q
200 R
201 S
202 T
210 U
211 V
212 W
220 X
221 Y
222 Z

Then, using the same ordering, just let the first third go to 0, the middle third go to 1, and the third third go to 2:

0: _ABCDEFGH
1: IJKLMNOPQ
2: RSTUVWXYZ

Then, since Gamer alluded in the last 'hint' that the total number of letters (and spaces/commas) must be a multiple of three, we can group them in threes, and the message can be translated into ternary:

YOU _RU B_I T_S HEE P_D UEL ED_ WAR _ST EPS _AG ING _BO RED
212 022 001 202 000 100 201 000 202 022 012 000 110 001 200

_TO _NU T_P RAY ED_ FOS SIL L_W INS _A_ QUI T_A ND_ OIL _IT
021 012 201 202 000 012 211 102 112 000 121 200 100 111 012

And then, convert each ternary triplet into a character (by the first chart):

WHAT_IS_THE_LARGEST_EVEN_PRIME

We find that this makes a coherent sentence! Translating each of the newspaper names by the same method (I'll do both steps at once this time) we get:

WAR RIT IRE
202 212 120
T W O

AT_ IT_ SPA RED
020 120 210 200
F O U R

TAN K_C URE
201 100 220
S I X

The correct answer to the first question is TWO (the largest and only even prime), so the solution to the problem must be WARRITIRE.
Edited on October 6, 2003, 12:15 pm

Posted by DJ on 2003-09-17 21:25:59