During the recent BrainBashers cipher convention, a binary code contest took place.
The contest consisted of a binary code transmission where the spaces between the letters were missing and there was no punctuation.
Each letter of the alphabet was translated into its binary equivalent based on its position in the alphabet. The resulting code was then blocked in groups of five digits.
a=1, b=10, c=11, d=100, e=101, f=110, g=111, h=1000, i=1001, j=1010, k=1011, l=1100, m=1101, n=1110, o=1111, p=10000, q=10001, r=10010, s=10011, t=10100, u=10101, v=10110, w=10111, x=11000, y=11001, z=11010
Hint
How many minutes are there between 2:00 and 7:00?
Answer
65 minutes.
Reasoning
We need to break down the five hours in the following way:
3 x Answer minutes past two o'clock40 minutesAnswer minutes before seven o'clock
Why? It is now Answer minutes before seven o'clock, and then we have the 40 minutes before that, and the remaining time was 3 x Answer minutes past two o'clock.
So, five hours = 5 x 60 = 300 minutes. We already know about the 40 minutes, so we have to share the remaining 260 minutes in the ratio 3:1, which gives 195:65 minutes. Or using algebra 4 x Answer = 300 − 40, so Answer = 65 minutes.
Therefore, the five hours is made up of:
195 minutes past two o'clock40 minutes65 minutes before seven o'clock
So, it's currently 65 minutes before 7:00 = 5:55.
Double-Checking
It is now 65 minutes before seven o'clock = 5:55, so 40 minutes ago it was 5:15 – which is 195 minutes after 2:00, as required (as 65 x 3 = 195).
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Puzzle 132
Which word is the odd one out:
ceelry caorrt caabbeg caefilloruw caehikort
