jackm@devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Jack Morrison) (12/22/87)
chris@peregrine.peregrine.com (Chris Cole) writes: >When I was a graduate student at Caltech, Professor Feynman showed me three >samples of code that he had been challenged with by a fellow scientist at >Los Alamos and which he had not been able to crack. I also was unable to >crack them. I now post them for the net to give it a try. [ ciphers deleted ]. Here is what I make of the first one. It's a pretty standard transposition: split the text into 5-column pieces, then read from lower right upward. I assume the odd language is something from literature I'm not familiar with; maybe someone can correct the punctuation and word breaks... WHAN THAT APRILLE, WITH HIS SHOURES, SOOTE THE DROGHTE OF MARCH HATH PERCED TO THE ROOTE AND BATHED EVERY VEYNE IN SWICH LICOUR OF WHICH VERTU ENGENDRED IS THE FLOUR WHAN ZEPHIR U SEEK WITH HIS SWEETE BREFTH INSPIRED HATH IN EVERY HOLT AND HE ETH THE TENDRE CROPPES AND THEY ONGE SONNE HATH IN THE RAM HIS HALVE COURSY RONNE AND SMALE FOWELES MAKE N MELODYE THAT SLEPEN AL THE NYGHT WITH OPEN. YES, O PRIKE THHEM, NATURE. IN HIR CORAGES THANNE LONGEN FOLK TO GO ON. ON PILGRIM! -- Jack C. Morrison Jet Propulsion Laboratory (818)354-1463 jackm@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov
philm@astroatc.UUCP (Phil Mason) (12/23/87)
In article <918@devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> jackm@devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Jack Morrison) writes: >[ ciphers deleted ]. >Here is what I make of the first one. It's a pretty standard transposition: >split the text into 5-column pieces, then read from lower right upward. >I assume the odd language is something from literature I'm not familiar >with; maybe someone can correct the punctuation and word breaks... > WHAN THAT APRILLE WITH HIS SHOURES SOOTE THE DROGHTE OF MARCH HATH PERCED TO THE ROOTE AND BATHED EVERY VEYNE IN SWICH LICOUR OF WHICH VERTU ENGENDRED IS THE FLOUR WHAN ZEPHIRU SEEK WITH HIS SWEETE BREFTH INSPIRED HATH IN EVERY HOLT AND HEETH THE TENDRE CROPPES AND THE YONGE SONNE HATH IN THE RAM HIS HALVE COURS Y'RONNE AND SMALE FOWELES MAKEN MELODYE THAT SLEPEN AL THE NYGHT WITH OPEN YES O PRIKE THHEM NATURE IN HIR CORAGES THANNE LONGEN FOLK TO GO ON PILGRIMAGES! The language is English - Middle English to be exact. These are the opening lines of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The spelling is not exactly the way I've usually seen it, but it is fairly close. However, in Middle English there were as many spelling conventions as there were people who wrote in it. -- Kirk : Bones ? | Phil Mason, Astronautics Technology Center Bones : He's dead Jim. | Madison, Wisconsin - "Eat Cheese or Die!" ...seismo-uwvax-astroatc!philm | I would really like to believe that my ...ihnp4-nicmad/ | employer shares all my opinions, but . . .