Enigma One

So begins the experiment with middle school students as cryptographer puzzle solvers.....

We started with some basic, common sense ground rules.  When we go about the building searching for physical clues we will travel together.  Nothing will be hidden in teacher's desks, bathrooms, basically any personal space in the building.  As the middle school has just been remodeled there are a great many places to hide things.

We also talked about the reason for the class.  Not to make them into sneaky persons out to fool others, but to help them figure out the peculiar codes and puzzles of the world.

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The week one problem:

Enigma Lesson One:  Interstellar

You wouldn’t know this, it is a secret after all, but Area 51 has nothing to do with flying saucers.  On this site in 1947 something very unusual was found in a desert cave.  Two things actually.  One appears to be a portal, a window to an alien world. Nothing comes through it and the only things that can be seen are patterns that continually repeat.  First a series of 18 red dots.

                                                             ******************

 Next comes six blue dots.

                                                                             ******

 Finally there is a very long string of 1’s and 0’s

111011101101110111010010101001010010010011101101110010010010001001010010 010010001001010010 010010001101010010

The other thing found in the cave is a container.  It is made of an unknown material and remarkably has a lock with English letters on it. 

Nobody has ever been able to decode the message or open the box.  Perhaps today will be the day.

But first let’s think.  Given the available information what do the aliens appear to know about us?  When was this mystery placed?  And for practice, let’s try our hand at composing a simple message to send back to them if we could.  We’ll attempt a simple picture.  What information will you make your top priority? 

Assume our ability to transmit over unknown distances is limited, so no YouTube videos!

 Go.

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It went pretty well.  I started by asking them for alternate ways to either open the box or figure out what was in it.  Of course an assortment of, er, direct methods were proposed and ruled out.  One clever girl said that she suspected the combination was written on the chest in Invisible Ink.  But, she said "we'd need an ultraviolet light to see it".

"Would you like one?"

"You mean you HAVE one???"

Of course I did, and let them study the treasure box to no effect for a while.  

Their take on what we knew about the Aliens was reasonable.  They can perceive color, they understand patterns, they know about English and perhaps some other languages.  

The pictures they designed to transmit back included an American Flag, stick figures, the Earth, and curiously, a bird.  None had particular artistic excellence.

I did have to prompt them a bit to figure out the challenge.  When they got distracted by things I asked them if they actually thought I was the kind of person who would intentionally throw in false leads.  They said I was.  I agreed.  Eventually they worked it out.  Here is the message decoded.

The treasure chest contained salty snacks and this follow up message.  Sort of "Galaxy Quest".

They were ready for more so a small secondary challenge regarding a spy named Anna and some random scrabble tiles was put forward and solved in short order.  Anna will be making future appearances........

There was even time, while they were snacking, for a brief discussion of the history of digital communication.  I say it goes all the way back to the Cave Peeps, who had Arms Up in the Air means Danger and Arms Not Up means no danger.  With more bits of information, say using more than two arms, you can communicate more things.  8 arms, or bits, can be used to communicate almost anything.  That would be a byte.  I threw in a bit on Logic Gates as well.  Why not.

A lot to take on in one hour.  They asked for more.  They asked specifically for algebra based problems.  I don't know about that.