Comment Solution Confirmed (Score 1) 463
The code has been solved. It was a substitution code based on the Fibonacci sequence. The judge gave a few clues: that it had something to do with what was on page 255 of the British version of Da Vinci Code (which deals with the Fibonacci sequence), and that it had something to do with his own Who's Who profile (in which he mentions his affinity for Jackie Fisher, former British Admiral.).
The sequence originally was:
SMITHYCODEJAEIEXTOSTGPSACGREAMQWFKADPMQZVZ
Removing "SMITHYCODE," what was left was:
JAEIEXTOSTGPSACGREAMQWFKADPMQZVZ
To decode, you go apply a substitution, based on the first eight Fibonacci numbers:
J A E I E X T O S T G P S A C G R E A M Q W F K A D P M Q Z V Z
1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21
Then, you find that letter in an alphabet starting at the fibonacci number given. So, "J" and "A" are the same. "I" is the ninth letter of the alphabet normally. The fibonacci number associated with that "I" is 3, and the ninth letter of an alphabet starting at the third letter (C) is "K."
There were two twists: The twos mean to count backwards two instead of forward (so the "E" becomes "C"; this quirk was drawn from one of the books in the litigation, Holy Blood, Holy Grail), and there is an intentional (at least he claims intentional) typo: The first "T" should be an "H."
The resulting message was:
"Jackie Fisher who are you Dreadnought"
Kind of a lot of work to get to what turned out to be a tribute to a military hero from 1920. Nonetheless, the judge confirmed that this decryption was correct.
The sequence originally was:
SMITHYCODEJAEIEXTOSTGPSACGREAMQWFKADPMQZVZ
Removing "SMITHYCODE," what was left was:
JAEIEXTOSTGPSACGREAMQWFKADPMQZVZ
To decode, you go apply a substitution, based on the first eight Fibonacci numbers:
J A E I E X T O S T G P S A C G R E A M Q W F K A D P M Q Z V Z
1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21
Then, you find that letter in an alphabet starting at the fibonacci number given. So, "J" and "A" are the same. "I" is the ninth letter of the alphabet normally. The fibonacci number associated with that "I" is 3, and the ninth letter of an alphabet starting at the third letter (C) is "K."
There were two twists: The twos mean to count backwards two instead of forward (so the "E" becomes "C"; this quirk was drawn from one of the books in the litigation, Holy Blood, Holy Grail), and there is an intentional (at least he claims intentional) typo: The first "T" should be an "H."
The resulting message was:
"Jackie Fisher who are you Dreadnought"
Kind of a lot of work to get to what turned out to be a tribute to a military hero from 1920. Nonetheless, the judge confirmed that this decryption was correct.
