Posted on 01/09/2023 2:28:35 AM PST by Apple Pan Dowdy
TQ OWPUHOWPTLY JMI XMQ'P IQXHFYPWQX PUTQNY. JMI RIYP NHP IYHX PM PUHO. — RMUQ EMQ QHIOWQQ
The way it works is a letter stands for another letter. For example: AXYDLBAAXR is LONGFELLOW (does not apply to today's cryptogram).
Beware, the game is very addictive. If this is your first time, don't be intimidated, you’ll be solving them all within a few days. If you’re stumped, take a break and return to it.
PLEASE DO NOT post the answer in general comments, but DO post your time and how you made out.
You can certainly send your solution to my private reply, or if you need a hint for today’s Cryptogram ASK THE GROUP FOR HELP!
I suggest printing these out and work them on paper. If you need a little help you can copy and paste it to Hal’s Helper below.
You can then work on the puzzle without using pen and paper, but I recommend that you do NOT look at the letter counter.
HAL'S CRYPTOGRAM HELPER
One last request. Feel free to post a fun or clever clue, the more tangential to the quotation the better, but please don’t put the actual words of the quote in the clue.
Have fun with today’s cryptogram and have a MARVELOUS MONDAY
Clue:
It’s kind of like “What is the square of (-1)?”
-PJ
QWZ'AG AWEPHMG
QWZ'AG KFG IKGTTGI WB AZIIYP
QWZ'AG KFG TPHKI WH P AWJQ ZIFGA
Y'E P VPXQ VWZK, LFW'I OZIK PSWZK KW IKWT
SZK YB, SPSQ, Y'E KFG SWKKWE
QWZ'AG KFG KWT- MWVG TWAKGA
Solution to previous puzzle (select the yellow text with your cursor to read):
You're romance
You're the steppes of Russia
You're the pants on a Roxy usher
I'm a lazy lout, who's just about to stop
But if, baby, I'm the bottom
You're the top- Cole Port
HAL'S CRYPTOGRAM HELPER
Technically, there should be a comma after the second word. But if he wrote it like that, I guess we have to leave it like that.
...said the man who could solve partial differential equations in his head.
Fun story about him: a couple of other scientists approached him with a mathematical puzzle:
There are 2 bikes, 120 miles apart. They are each traveling directly towards the other, each at 15 mph. There is a fly on the front tire of the first bike.
The instant the bikes start moving, the fly goes straight toward the second bike. And as soon as it reaches the second bike the fly turns around. And it keeps going until it gets squished between the two bikes’ front tires when they meet.
If the the fly travels at 5 mph, how far did the fly travel?
Our author thought for a few seconds and gave the answer.
The scientists replied “Correct. And I’m glad you took the short way, by figuring out how long the bikes would take meet, and then figure out how far a thing going 5 mph travels in that time. Most people try to solve it by doing the limiting case of the infinite series.”
Our author replied, puzzled, “What do you mean? I *did* solve the infinite series...”
A remarkable solution, given that the fly will be 40 miles behind the first bike (and never overtake him) when the two bikes collide.
The source below gives the initial distance between the bicycles as 20 miles, the speed of the bikes as 10 MPH and speed of the fly as 15 MPH. Other than that it was a great story!
It’s not a particularly hard series to sum, the difficulty is construction the series, figuring out which series to sum. In my form it’s sum (1/5)^n, n from one to infinity. Then you have to multiply by 60, 4 being a scale factor that falls out, and 15 being the speed of the fly.
OK, fine; 5mph relative to each bike.
I was going from memory having heard it once over 40 years ago, and typing without coffee while on a work deadline.
Sheesh.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to be hypercritical, but it’s more fun if it makes sense. I remember hearing in high school, and I solved it the easy way. I believe John v. Neumann would do it the hard way.
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