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One Away (Posted on 2005-12-30) Difficulty: 4 of 5
0+D4R2NBZ4JDCFF5OFBHH
SHR43ADRZK0BSEG0CEIS
0J50XKV00PKDDSL5DKFL
CHFCIF3JZDKECJSTF5J3
HR2NKPKDFSFK
-1

Hint: 0 = 0. but 1 = 27, the line breaks don't matter, and the answer has four letters.

  Submitted by Gamer    
Rating: 4.3333 (3 votes)
Solution: (Hide)
The real method to solve this is to convert all the letters into binary, add a 0 to the front and subtract the last 1, and then covert back to letters. However, this can be simplified because every 0 changes to 0 or A, every A changes to B or C... If there was a 5 it would have changed to 4 or 5. The first letter is used if the next letter comes O or before, and the second letter is used if P or after. Doing that gives:

BOINGAMOEBASCOWSADDITIONPRIMEPAIRSPARTYPEOPLE100HERBIVORESFATCATSNUMBERQUIZCOUNTINGEXERCISE

Which might look strange until you realize all of those are problems on perplexus. When they are looked up, all are from the catergory "numbers" which gives a clue as to what to look for -- each problem's number (its pid) gives more information:
  • 1160 Boing!
  • 0123 Amoebas!
  • 0051 Cows
  • 0149 Addition
  • 0186 Prime Pairs
  • 1021 Party People
  • 0101 100 Herbivores
  • 0067 Fat Cats
  • 1184 Number Quiz
  • 1157 Counting Excercise

It is also interesting that the first two numbers of each pid are either 0 or 1, thus continuing with the binary theme. Putting them together in order gives 11010001011001001111, and this translated into letters gives ZERO, the answer to this problem.

Comments: ( You must be logged in to post comments.)
  Subject Author Date
Auckland ConcreteWhia19672022-09-17 03:20:23
AnswerK Sengupta2008-03-19 11:16:08
re(2): additional observation #2Hugo2006-02-18 14:25:20
re: additional observation #2Mindrod2006-02-17 21:34:49
re: Shampoo?Hugo2006-02-12 11:45:10
Shampoo?Hugo2006-02-11 10:36:46
re: Useless idea's #173Gamer2006-02-06 23:04:26
re(2): Useless idea's #173Hugo2006-02-06 17:34:48
re: Useless idea's #173Justin2006-02-06 12:22:34
Useless idea's #173Hugo2006-02-06 11:59:08
re: yet another coincidence -- hintGamer2006-02-05 14:11:02
Some Thoughtsyet another coincidenceMindrod2006-02-04 20:39:47
re(2): useless observations -- useless analysisHugo2006-02-04 06:45:31
re(2): useless observations -- uselessHugo2006-02-03 14:32:16
re: useless observations -- uselessGamer2006-02-03 13:50:37
Some Thoughtsuseless observation #4Mindrod2006-02-03 00:36:01
additional observation #3Hugo2006-02-02 07:02:20
re: additional observation #2Gamer2006-01-31 17:19:57
additional observation #2Hugo2006-01-29 07:11:23
Hints/Tips additional observationMindrod2006-01-28 17:00:55
Solutionre: Incomplete solution: need to check for errorsMindrod2006-01-28 16:35:00
SolutionIncomplete solution: need to check for errorsMindrod2006-01-28 16:09:18
re(3): attentionGamer2006-01-28 14:26:39
re(2): attentionBob Smith2006-01-17 16:45:18
Hints/Tipsre: attentionGamer2005-12-31 17:08:29
Some ThoughtsattentionMindRod2005-12-31 13:23:00
Hints/TipsHintsGamer2005-12-30 18:09:00
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