[Guest]

As promised - the third installment.

***

The group ventured into the last open door and find themselves moving away from the Greek temple into a futuristic tunnel. The marble floors were replaced with steel floor tiles, the stone/marble walls replaced with aluminum ones that seem hide secret passages at every turn.

"Back to the future?" chuckled Lee. That eased the tense air surrounding the companions. Soon they were exchanging small conversations, until they came to a room with 5 doorways, each with one of their names written on it, and a sign in the middle. At the end of the room, there were close to a hundred small boxes, all which are of different colors - some are solid, some are transparent.

Jeanne opened a transparent green one and sees a key inside. She opened another, a solid blue one with white lines, and finds another key.

"Now what?"

"Let's try looking for clues."

They crowded around the sign, which reads;

Under that sign, the following message is seen;

"Welcome to the next leg of your journey. I hope you paid attention in class, you'll need it. Find the correct key. The clues should give you the correct box. Solve this and we'll give you more information about your... situation. Have fun.

Oh, a word of advice, don't try your luck - get the wrong key twice, and you lose. I don't think you enjoy the prospects of rotting in this tunnel for eternity."

  Reveal hidden contents

A = a

B = c

C = k

D = k

E = m

F = m

G = s

"What is this supposed to mean?" asked Dave.

"I have no idea. I don't think we can make sense of it yet - let's go explore. I mean, they took the time to write our names. We should be good guests," said Clavius sarcastically. "We can still keep in touch with these." He help up his PDA.

"Okay."

They entered their respective doorways. At the end of the room, they find a small chest with different messages.

'Dudes. Found box with clue.' - Dave

'Same here.' -Jeanne

'Ditto.' -Clavius

'Write it down and be back in room pronto.' -Yulianna

  Reveal hidden contents

A

  Reveal hidden contents

E^-1D^-1G³A²

  Reveal hidden contents

C + 273

  Reveal hidden contents

Final E²G^-2

  Reveal hidden contents

EDG^-2

They wrote down their clues in their respective PDAs and went back to the room.

"Let's get started." Jeanne said as they laid the PDA-clues down.

***

I had a few working ideas, the rest needed a bit of extra work. This is the ready one - but untested: I hope it's not too long a shot. Oh well, I'll just put this out. Have fun.

Edited April 8, 2009 by scsw

[Guest]

  Reveal hidden contents

does a pig pen have something to do with it. Thats what Chochon stylo translates too. Clef translates to key. Am I on the right track?

[Guest]

With the image, i think of the following:

  Reveal hidden contents

A|B|C K|L|M T|U|V

-+-+- -+-+- -+-+-

D|E|F N|O|P W|X|Y

-+-+- -+-+- -+-+-

H|I|J Q|R|S Z| |

In one of the tick-tack-toe tables, there will be no markings. In the second, a V, in the third the other sign.

Each letter is then represented by the section it is in. For example, A would be _|, K would be the same but with a V in the _|

Also, since its similar to a tick-tack-toe table, it seems relevant to the "paying attention in class" part.

Am i clear in my explenation?

I dont know if this is relevent to the puzzle, but thats my try.

[Guest]

  Reveal hidden contents

made me immediately think of high school chemistry. if C=k, and then lee's clue is k + 273. This is the temperature conversion for degrees Kelvin into degrees Celsius. I have no idea what this has to do with anything yet.

Cochon Stylo (Pig Pen) is from the Peanuts comic starring Charlie Brown. My guess, is use the key inside the Brown box?? Assuming there is a brown box. It's quite the long shot but I figured i can eliminate this line of thought.

[Guest]

Things to think about which might help:

Sign:

  Reveal hidden contents

has "Bonjour", which is French.

Clef:

  Reveal hidden contents

relates to music.

  Reveal hidden contents

Also, CLEF might be a code. There are characters which start with C (clavius) and L (Lee) , but i don't think this is related.

The code

Spoiler for clue 1:

A = a

B = c

C = k

D = k

E = m

F = m

G = s

Might also have something with "clef"

Probably not this

CODE:

  Reveal hidden contents

Somehow, the code reminds me of the "Square root" sign, if u rearrange the two drawings.

  Reveal hidden contents

Also, they look a bit like greek letter:

v = upside down Upper case 'lambda' OR lowercase 'Nu'

"half square(second sign)" = Upper case Gamma

Greek letters picture

Cochon Stylo:

as hartleydogg33 said,

  Reveal hidden contents

cochon stylo translates to pig pen. Pen would be as in "writing pen", but "pen" also has the meaning of a place where they stay.

  Reveal hidden contents

Cochon Stylo could be encoded maybe?

Probably not this, especially after TheWwwyzzerdd post

The number sign:

  Reveal hidden contents

could allude to various things:

it is the "Sharp" symbol in music,

in some programming languages, it is a comment sign ( ex. everything after # is a comment)

it can also be used in addresses to point to a certain point on the page (ex. go to any page of wikipedia and click a sub heading, the url will be http://wikipedia.org/wiki/articlename#subheading)

  Reveal hidden contents

Also, what Raoul said reminded me of a 3x3x3 Tic Tac toe, or possibly a matrix...

Letters:

  Reveal hidden contents

a code.. obviously...

  Reveal hidden contents

The letters the characters receive look like equations.

However, could also be something like their "positions" in the tic tac toe / matrix

What TheWwwyzzerdd said is very clever

I think your idea is probably right.

  Reveal hidden contents

273 can't just be a random number

  Reveal hidden contents

I think ur idea is probably right too...

Probably a brown box.

Edited April 8, 2009 by gianfun

[Guest]

  Reveal hidden contents

going off of gianfun's notion of clef meaning a musical clef. and # meaning sharp. I noticed that the first clue lists A through G, which happen to be musical notes. Could be a coincidence though.

[Pickett]

  Reveal hidden contents

I'd go with it's a pigpen cipher:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigpen_cipher

I don't have time right now to work on it (busy at work)...but thought I would push people along...

[Guest]

That makes so much sense...

Could have thought of that...

  Reveal hidden contents

The answer could be pandora's box!!

since it's a box, and is in mytology

using Pickett's idea

  Reveal hidden contents

using the pigpen cypher, the code would be "SI", which is yes in spanish

Edited April 8, 2009 by gianfun

[Pickett]

  Reveal hidden contents

This has to do with the PIGPEN cipher...and the code is "SI"...so we have "Bonjour" (french). Well, "SI" is short for the french "Le Système International d'Unités"...which is the metric system.

Spoiler for Clue 1:

A = a

B = c

C = k

D = k

E = m

F = m

G = s

Clue 1: A

I see this just being a substitution to A=a...

Clue 2: E^-1D^-1G³A²

Ok...so, here we get a little interesting...my first thought was to simply make it a fraction GGGAA/ED...which then substituting gives a²s³/km...I'll admit, my physics is a little rusty, so I don't know if that's a unit of measure for something...but read on...

Clue 3: C + 273

C + 273 is the conversion from Celcius to Kelvin...however, after substituting, we get k + 273...not sure about this...(if it were k - 273, we'd have the kelvin - celcius conversion)

Clue 4: Final E²G^-2

Again, substitution: "Final m²/s²" which is close to the unit of measure for energy (kg m²/s²)...but not sure what else...

Clue 5: EDG^-2

Finally substituting this, we get km/s² which is acceleration...

So, not completely sure what these mean, but I feel like these have to be going in the right direction...

Edited April 8, 2009 by Pickett

[Guest]

Interesting developments. Looks like it's gonna be solved soon.

  hartleydogg33 said:

  Reveal hidden contents

does a pig pen have something to do with it. Thats what Chochon stylo translates too. Clef translates to key. Am I on the right track?

You are on the right track.

  Raoul said:

With the image, i think of the following:

  Reveal hidden contents

A|B|C K|L|M T|U|V

-+-+- -+-+- -+-+-

D|E|F N|O|P W|X|Y

-+-+- -+-+- -+-+-

H|I|J Q|R|S Z| |

In one of the tick-tack-toe tables, there will be no markings. In the second, a V, in the third the other sign.

Each letter is then represented by the section it is in. For example, A would be _|, K would be the same but with a V in the _|

Also, since its similar to a tick-tack-toe table, it seems relevant to the "paying attention in class" part.

Am i clear in my explenation?

I dont know if this is relevent to the puzzle, but thats my try.

That table looks similar to something you need to use. But that's not it.

  TheWwwyzzerdd said:

  Reveal hidden contents

made me immediately think of high school chemistry. if C=k, and then lee's clue is k + 273. This is the temperature conversion for degrees Kelvin into degrees Celsius. I have no idea what this has to do with anything yet.

Cochon Stylo (Pig Pen) is from the Peanuts comic starring Charlie Brown. My guess, is use the key inside the Brown box?? Assuming there is a brown box. It's quite the long shot but I figured i can eliminate this line of thought.

The first: You're getting very warm.

The second: You are right about some parts.

  gianfun said:

Things to think about which might help:

Sign:

  Reveal hidden contents

has "Bonjour", which is French.

Clef:

  Reveal hidden contents

relates to music.

  Reveal hidden contents

Also, CLEF might be a code. There are characters which start with C (clavius) and L (Lee) , but i don't think this is related.

The code

Spoiler for clue 1:

A = a

B = c

C = k

D = k

E = m

F = m

G = s

Might also have something with "clef"

Probably not this

CODE:

  Reveal hidden contents

Somehow, the code reminds me of the "Square root" sign, if u rearrange the two drawings.

  Reveal hidden contents

Also, they look a bit like greek letter:

v = upside down Upper case 'lambda' OR lowercase 'Nu'

"half square(second sign)" = Upper case Gamma

Greek letters picture

Cochon Stylo:

as hartleydogg33 said,

  Reveal hidden contents

cochon stylo translates to pig pen. Pen would be as in "writing pen", but "pen" also has the meaning of a place where they stay.

  Reveal hidden contents

Cochon Stylo could be encoded maybe?

Probably not this, especially after TheWwwyzzerdd post

The number sign:

  Reveal hidden contents

could allude to various things:

it is the "Sharp" symbol in music,

in some programming languages, it is a comment sign ( ex. everything after # is a comment)

it can also be used in addresses to point to a certain point on the page (ex. go to any page of wikipedia and click a sub heading, the url will be http://wikipedia.org/wiki/articlename#subheading)

  Reveal hidden contents

Also, what Raoul said reminded me of a 3x3x3 Tic Tac toe, or possibly a matrix...

Letters:

  Reveal hidden contents

a code.. obviously...

  Reveal hidden contents

The letters the characters receive look like equations.

However, could also be something like their "positions" in the tic tac toe / matrix

What TheWwwyzzerdd said is very clever

I think your idea is probably right.

  Reveal hidden contents

273 can't just be a random number

  Reveal hidden contents

I think ur idea is probably right too...

Probably a brown box.

This is a huge post. Whew. Okay,

  Reveal hidden contents

What does clef mean? Someone posted something about the cochon earlier that hit the mark.

Don't venture down the matrix path my friend. It's a very good guess and reasoning, but one not used in this puzzle.

  TheWwwyzzerdd said:

  Reveal hidden contents

going off of gianfun's notion of clef meaning a musical clef. and # meaning sharp. I noticed that the first clue lists A through G, which happen to be musical notes. Could be a coincidence though.

  Reveal hidden contents

I was gonna give this when someone asked the right question, you and gianfun did - A through G is not related to musical notes. It's to throw you off track.

  Pickett said:

  Reveal hidden contents

I'd go with it's a pigpen cipher:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigpen_cipher

I don't have time right now to work on it (busy at work)...but thought I would push people along...

  Reveal hidden contents

You know my riddles well.

  gianfun said:

That makes so much sense...

Could have thought of that...

  Reveal hidden contents

The answer could be pandora's box!!

since it's a box, and is in mytology

using Pickett's idea

  Reveal hidden contents

using the pigpen cypher, the code would be "SI", which is yes in spanish

  Reveal hidden contents

Maybe. But then, maybe not. Notice the change of theme?

  Pickett said:

  Reveal hidden contents

This has to do with the PIGPEN cipher...and the code is "SI"...so we have "Bonjour" (french). Well, "SI" is short for the french "Le Système International d'Unités"...which is the metric system.

Spoiler for Clue 1:

A = a

B = c

C = k

D = k

E = m

F = m

G = s

Clue 1: A

I see this just being a substitution to A=a...

Clue 2: E^-1D^-1G³A²

Ok...so, here we get a little interesting...my first thought was to simply make it a fraction GGGAA/ED...which then substituting gives a²s³/km...I'll admit, my physics is a little rusty, so I don't know if that's a unit of measure for something...but read on...

Clue 3: C + 273

C + 273 is the conversion from Celcius to Kelvin...however, after substituting, we get k + 273...not sure about this...(if it were k - 273, we'd have the kelvin - celcius conversion)

Clue 4: Final E²G^-2

Again, substitution: "Final m²/s²" which is close to the unit of measure for energy (kg m²/s²)...but not sure what else...

Clue 5: EDG^-2

Finally substituting this, we get km/s² which is acceleration...

So, not completely sure what these mean, but I feel like these have to be going in the right direction...

  Reveal hidden contents

Pickett is absolutely right, Clue 3: C - 273

You are working in the right direction.

[DudleyDude]

Trying to keep down the size of the expanding spoilers so I didn't quote.

  Reveal hidden contents

I found a site giving the base and derived units for the International System of Units (SI). I came up with the following suggestions for each person's clue

  Reveal hidden contents

just an 'a'. Doesn't really relate to an SI unit, although an 'A' is an ampere and is used in many other derived units.

  Reveal hidden contents

m-1 k-1 s3 a2 - Closest derived unit is the Siemens (s3 a2 m-2 kg) [i am assuming throughout that the coded "k" is actually a "kg" in the SI units] This could refer to an Sm??

  Reveal hidden contents

m2 s-2 - This is a Gray (Gy)

  Reveal hidden contents

m k s-2 - This is a Newton (N)

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I think these work too well to just be a coincidence. My first thought was that the five clues referred to elements, but neither A nor Gy are symbols on the Periodic table.

[Guest]

  Reveal hidden contents

Sorry, Clavius's clue should be E^-2D^-1G³A²

So the clues are:

  Reveal hidden contents

A

  Reveal hidden contents

E^-2D^-1G³A²

  Reveal hidden contents

C - 273

  Reveal hidden contents

Final E²G^-2

  Reveal hidden contents

EDG^-2

  DudleyDude said:

Trying to keep down the size of the expanding spoilers so I didn't quote.

  Reveal hidden contents

I found a site giving the base and derived units for the International System of Units (SI). I came up with the following suggestions for each person's clue

  Reveal hidden contents

just an 'a'. Doesn't really relate to an SI unit, although an 'A' is an ampere and is used in many other derived units.

  Reveal hidden contents

m-1 k-1 s3 a2 - Closest derived unit is the Siemens (s3 a2 m-2 kg) [i am assuming throughout that the coded "k" is actually a "kg" in the SI units] This could refer to an Sm??

  Reveal hidden contents

m2 s-2 - This is a Gray (Gy)

  Reveal hidden contents

m k s-2 - This is a Newton (N)

  Reveal hidden contents

I think these work too well to just be a coincidence. My first thought was that the five clues referred to elements, but neither A nor Gy are symbols on the Periodic table.

You are soooo close.

  Reveal hidden contents

I don't think so.

They are not related to elements. Look closely at what you all have now. And notice how everything is arranged?

[plasmid]

  Reveal hidden contents

So we have

A (Dave's a)

S (Clavius' s3 a2 m-2 kg-1)

C (Lee's k-273)

Gy (or Sv) (Yuliana's m2 s-2)

N (Jeane's kg m s-2)

Since Yuliana's clue was preceded by "Final", maybe we're just taking the "Y"?

How many boxes would there be if we looked for all of the CYANS? Too many to try all of their keys without too many wrong guesses?

[Guest]

  plasmid said:

  Reveal hidden contents

So we have

A (Dave's a)

S (Clavius' s3 a2 m-2 kg-1)

C (Lee's k-273)

Gy (or Sv) (Yuliana's m2 s-2)

N (Jeane's kg m s-2)

Since Yuliana's clue was preceded by "Final", maybe we're just taking the "Y"?

How many boxes would there be if we looked for all of the CYANS? Too many to try all of their keys without too many wrong guesses?

Haha. So close.

  Reveal hidden contents

Like I said, look at how everything was arranged, especially the order of the SI units.

[DudleyDude]

  scsw said:

Haha. So close.

  Reveal hidden contents

Like I said, look at how everything was arranged, especially the order of the SI units.

  Reveal hidden contents

I think that Less's (corrected) original clue was c-237. That would make the answer K for Kelvin. So the combined clue could be "Ask Gyn" or something. Still not sure what that means, but I do think that Lee's letter should be "K" instead of "C".

[Guest]

  Reveal hidden contents

A = a

B = c

C = k

D = k

E = m

F = m

G = s

scsw must be refering to this for the order, there is no way to determine if the doors were in any kind of order from the puzzle. Personally, I do not think that unscrambling ASKGyN is where this puzzle ends. Perhaps there are other letters we can derive from them? I am just starting to work on this and I am still busy with MtO, but I will see what I can do.

EDIT: Good catch Dudly.

EDIT2: For some reason I keep thinking the answer is "ANY KEY" though I cannot figure out how that would work. That would be funny though, saying we can only try two before we are trapped to keep us from just trying keys. I suggest trying any key first and working out the problem after that to be sure that the second key is the correct key if the first one does not work.

Edited April 8, 2009 by IDoNotExist

[Guest]

  DudleyDude said:

  Reveal hidden contents

I think that Less's (corrected) original clue was c-237. That would make the answer K for Kelvin. So the combined clue could be "Ask Gyn" or something. Still not sure what that means, but I do think that Lee's letter should be "K" instead of "C".

  Reveal hidden contents

Everyone has the right idea. A through G can be substituted for whatever they stand for.

The clue is still C-273.

  IDoNotExist said:

scsw must be refering to this for the order, there is no way to determine if the doors were in any kind of order from the puzzle. Personally, I do not think that unscrambling ASKGyN is where this puzzle ends. Perhaps there are other letters we can derive from them? I am just starting to work on this and I am still busy with MtO, but I will see what I can do.

EDIT: Good catch Dudly.

EDIT2: For some reason I keep thinking the answer is "ANY KEY" though I cannot figure out how that would work. That would be funny though, saying we can only try two before we are trapped to keep us from just trying keys. I suggest trying any key first and working out the problem after that to be sure that the second key is the correct key if the first one does not work.

  Reveal hidden contents

A = a

B = c

C = k

D = k

E = m

F = m

G = s

  Reveal hidden contents

Who is Gyn?

Let's see, since I made so many blunders earlier;

  Reveal hidden contents

Try listing down what each alphabet represents on the list (the full word).

[Guest]

  scsw said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Who is Gyn?

Let's see, since I made so many blunders earlier;

  Reveal hidden contents

Try listing down what each alphabet represents on the list (the full word).

  Reveal hidden contents

Everyone has the right idea. A through G can be substituted for whatever they stand for.

The clue is still C-273.

Is this all the right answers?

Ampere

Siemens

Kelvin

Gray

Newton

Or is it...

Ampere

Celsius

Kelvin

Kelvin

Meter

Meter

Siemen

I am going completely off of the terms given here already. No idea if this is correct or even close.

Edited April 8, 2009 by IDoNotExist

[Guest]

  IDoNotExist said:

Is this all the right answers?

Ampere

Siemens

Kelvin

Gray

Newton

Or is it...

Ampere

Celsius

Kelvin

Kelvin

Meter

Meter

Siemen

I am going completely off of the terms given here already. No idea if this is correct or even close.

  Reveal hidden contents

The first table - all right but one. The second is wrong; you're repeating some and missing others.

[DudleyDude]

  scsw said:

  Reveal hidden contents

The first table - all right but one. The second is wrong; you're repeating some and missing others.

  Reveal hidden contents

Could you confirm the clue for Clavius? If the clue is correct, then Siemens is probably the wrong answer.

[Guest]

  Reveal hidden contents

That clue is correct. Siemens is correct too.

[DudleyDude]

  Reveal hidden contents

Ampere

Siemens

Kelvin

Grey

Newton

was correct except for one item. You confirmed that Siemens was correct. I think that Ampere was the biggest stretch of them all and the word "final" was left out. So I think this is what we have to work with

Dave -> a (Ampere) (Electric Current)

Clavius -> Siemens (S) (Electric Conductance)

Lee -> Kelvin (K) (thermodynamic temperature)

Yuliana -> FINAL Gray (Gy) (absorbed dose)

Jeane -> Newton (N) (Force)

If there was only one thing wrong with the original list, I'd guess that it was leaving out the 'Final'. But even after putting it in, I don't see a useful pattern.

[Guest]

  Reveal hidden contents

Ampere

Siemens

Kelvin

Sievert

Newton

Edited April 8, 2009 by IDoNotExist

[Guest]

  DudleyDude said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Ampere

Siemens

Kelvin

Grey

Newton

was correct except for one item. You confirmed that Siemens was correct. I think that Ampere was the biggest stretch of them all and the word "final" was left out. So I think this is what we have to work with

Dave -> a (Ampere) (Electric Current)

Clavius -> Siemens (S) (Electric Conductance)

Lee -> Kelvin (K) (thermodynamic temperature)

Yuliana -> FINAL Gray (Gy) (absorbed dose)

Jeane -> Newton (N) (Force)

If there was only one thing wrong with the original list, I'd guess that it was leaving out the 'Final'. But even after putting it in, I don't see a useful pattern.

  IDoNotExist said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Ampere

Siemens

Kelvin

Sievert

Newton

  Reveal hidden contents

Kelvin is wrong. But, what is C - 273? and what does C refer to?

Also, look back at the SI units list in the clues. Try listing them down and see if you can make any sense out of the order.

[Guest]

  scsw said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Kelvin is wrong. But, what is C - 273? and what does C refer to?

Also, look back at the SI units list in the clues. Try listing them down and see if you can make any sense out of the order.

When you refer to the SI units list are you refering to Clue #1 or to the order of the clues with the names?

[DudleyDude]

  scsw said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Kelvin is wrong. But, what is C - 273? and what does C refer to?

Also, look back at the SI units list in the clues. Try listing them down and see if you can make any sense out of the order.

  Reveal hidden contents

If we assume C stands for Celsius, then perhaps C - 273 refers to -273 degrees Celsius which is almost absolute Zero. In SI units, this would be 0K or perhaps K0.