EnRUPT – The Simpler The Better

Five years ago, the DSD puzzle corner got updated with boring easily solvable puzzles, and to make it even less interesting, the solutions to them got provided as well. Since there is no web page containing solutions to all the cool old DSD puzzles [if you can’t see the crossword there, select all the text with CTRL-A], and since even the puzzles themselves are nowhere to be found besides the internet archive, we have decided to share our solutions:

1. The words of a problem are numbered in lexicographical order. Then the first word of the problem is written in the position denoted by 1, the second word in the position denoted by 2, etc. The result is: “five random order is eight that numbers six one square four are the what a written digit is resulting number probability and three in down the the”. Solve the (mathematical) problem!

   The mathematical problem is: “The numbers one three four six and eight are written down in random order. What is the probability that the resulting five digit number is a square?”. The answer is: 1/24.

2. Authorities intercepted the message LJPPV KOUYK OIRWQ HKIQC DPAKB RXHJI, believed transmitted by a gang of smugglers. This was decrypted to: “Password for next month is Bogeyman”. About a month later the message KUVMF PPVLO RVDII EUPUK QLKQS UPRFX was intercepted. This was decrypted to: “New password will be sent on Tuesday”. The following Tuesday the single word EFGMRIHQ was intercepted. What was the new password?

   The three messages are encrypted with monoalphabetic substitution with encryption keys JANUARY, FEBRUARY and MARCH. The last message decrypts to the new password HIJACKER.

3. A broker sent a cable to a client advising the purchase of a commodity on certain terms. The message, which contained no repeated letters, was only ten letters long. The client converted the letters into numbers (A=1, B=2, etc.) and was amazed to notice that no three of these numbers formed an arithmetic progression. What was the message?

   Of all the possible anagrams that satisfy the given requirement, only one makes sense in the given context: BUY TEN FLAX.

4. Self-Referential Crossword