Ah, the thick plottens! Over the course of two episodes, Sally Grissom, our intrepid heroine, goes on a road trip, and gets accused of treason! All in a day's work for a time-traveling physicist, I suppose.
On to the codes!
Blue
However, if we try the same strategy of a straightforward Vignere, we get gobbledygook: H K I J | D P X | Q S B O D Z O C Z | C F Y J V P U which then becomes L C V G | F T P | D P D S V M L E D | U S V L Z H H when ciphered with WINDY. Not particularly intelligible. So, red is a different coding approach. How to break it? This where knowing that the creators of Ars Paradoxica are nerds, and physics nerds at that (gee... who'd have thought) comes into play.
And that is how you solve a red cipher on Ars Paradoxica :)
On to the codes!
Blue
The first, from Trinity Act I is another straightforward 'blue' code. The numbers station provides us with the following:Blue
03 23 02 07 | 07 10 02 18 17 18 05 23 01 22 | 11 01 09 01 | 22 15 17 09 07
WEATHER: windy
As with the first two, you will run either the math approach or the table look up approach. Either method will render the following: Good Intentions Mean Squat. Cheerful...
Red
08 11 09 10 | 04 16 24 | 17 19 02 15 04 26 15 03 26 | 03 06 25 10 22 16 21
WEATHER: windy
As with the first two, you will run either the math approach or the table look up approach. Either method will render the following: Good Intentions Mean Squat. Cheerful...
Red
The second from Trinity Act II, is the first of the 'red' codes. Once again, the numbers station reads to us:Red
08 11 09 10 | 04 16 24 | 17 19 02 15 04 26 15 03 26 | 03 06 25 10 22 16 21
WEATHER: windy
However, if we try the same strategy of a straightforward Vignere, we get gobbledygook: H K I J | D P X | Q S B O D Z O C Z | C F Y J V P U which then becomes L C V G | F T P | D P D S V M L E D | U S V L Z H H when ciphered with WINDY. Not particularly intelligible. So, red is a different coding approach. How to break it? This where knowing that the creators of Ars Paradoxica are nerds, and physics nerds at that (gee... who'd have thought) comes into play.
The secret has to do with blue-shift and red-shift - changes of light moving towards or away from the observer. The following are from Google:
blue·shift
/ˈblo͞oˌSHift/
noun.
/ˈblo͞oˌSHift/
noun.
ASTRONOMY
noun: blue shift; noun: blue-shift
the displacement of the spectrum to shorter wavelengths in the light coming from distant celestial objects moving toward the observer.
noun: blue shift; noun: blue-shift
the displacement of the spectrum to shorter wavelengths in the light coming from distant celestial objects moving toward the observer.
red·shift
/ˈredˈSHift/
noun
ASTRONOMY
noun: red shift; noun: red-shift
the displacement of spectral lines toward longer wavelengths (the red end of the spectrum) in radiation from distant galaxies and celestial objects. This is interpreted as a Doppler shift that is proportional to the velocity of recession and thus to distance.
So, if the blue codes are going one direction, the red codes are going the opposite direction. Nerds. I love it. Remember how we were doing a basic conversion where A=1 on the blues? Now, we're going to do it backwards, where A=26, and Z=1.
/ˈredˈSHift/
noun
ASTRONOMY
noun: red shift; noun: red-shift
the displacement of spectral lines toward longer wavelengths (the red end of the spectrum) in radiation from distant galaxies and celestial objects. This is interpreted as a Doppler shift that is proportional to the velocity of recession and thus to distance.
So, if the blue codes are going one direction, the red codes are going the opposite direction. Nerds. I love it. Remember how we were doing a basic conversion where A=1 on the blues? Now, we're going to do it backwards, where A=26, and Z=1.
What am I talking about? Lets's look.
When A=1, you convert 08 11 09 10 | 04 16 24 | 17 19 02 15 04 26 15 03 26 | 03 06 25 10 22 16 21 into H K I J | D P X | Q S B O D Z O C Z | C F Y J V P U
However, when A=26, or Z=01, 08 11 09 10 | 04 16 24 | 17 19 02 15 04 26 15 03 26 | 03 06 25 10 22 16 21 becomes S P R Q | W K C | J H Y L W A L X A | X U B Q E K F
When you run S P R Q | W K C | J H Y L W A L X A | X U B Q E K F through a Vignere cipher, either mathematically or on the table, you get:
WHEN YOU WEAPONIZE PHYSICS
And that is how you solve a red cipher on Ars Paradoxica :)
Again, if you don't want to work this out by hand, there are some great tools online. For converting to letters in a Z=01 system, I recommend dCode. As always, for Vigenere, Rumkin is the easiest out there.
Enjoy!
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