[superprismatic]

Thirteen of the letters of the

alphabet are written around the

rim of one disk, the remainder

around the rim of another, pivoted

to turn relative to the first.

Each letter of a message is replaced

by the corresponding letter on the

other disk. After each letter is

enciphered, the outer disk is

rotated one position clockwise

relative to the inner disk. By this

scheme, "Hitch your wagon to a star"

becomes:

SZRJU INDLU IKALF KQMBL V

[/code]
Another message, with a different

initial placement of the disks,

comes out:

[code]JLNIW ATUYE EHXFW

DMBMT MKPIW WVDU

What does it say?

[Guest]

Thirteen of the letters of the

alphabet are written around the

rim of one disk, the remainder

around the rim of another, pivoted

to turn relative to the first.

Each letter of a message is replaced

by the corresponding letter on the

other disk. After each letter is

enciphered, the outer disk is

rotated one position clockwise

relative to the inner disk. By this

scheme, "Hitch your wagon to a star"

becomes:

SZRJU INDLU IKALF KQMBL V

(Edit) Had a question but figured it out. Any way to delete post?

Edited September 10, 2009 by ljb

[Guest]

I am not understanding because "hitch your wagon to a star" and "SZRJU INDLU IKALF KQMBL V" do not have the same number of words or spaces, so do you also abitrarily move the spaces around?

[superprismatic]

I am not understanding because "hitch your wagon to a star" and "SZRJU INDLU IKALF KQMBL V" do not have the same number of words or spaces, so do you also abitrarily move the spaces around?

It's not arbitrary -- spaces are removed, then the text is enciphered, and then the cypher is put into groups of 5 for easy reading.

[Guest]

Good stuff. Made myself a makeshift cipher wheel and all!

Great oaks from little acorns grow

[Guest]

got the disks...

[Guest]

are they pivoted in the same direction as in the first message?

[Guest]

great oaks from little acorns grow

[superprismatic]

are they pivoted in the same direction as in the first message?

I'm not sure what you mean but the disks are unchanged from the first message except for the initial orientation of the disks to one another. For the second message, then, you don't know how they are initially rotated relative to one another. The rotation of the outer disk still goes clockwise during encryption.

[Guest]

I'm not sure what you mean but the disks are unchanged from the first message except for the initial orientation of the disks to one another. For the second message, then, you don't know how they are initially rotated relative to one another. The rotation of the outer disk still goes clockwise during encryption.

I was asking about the direction of rotation - if it was still clockwise for the second part, or if that part of the puzzle was specifically referring to the first message only. I wound up trying both directions until I found the solution.

Edited September 10, 2009 by ogden_tbsa