From previous work with Boris and Natasha, you know that their encoding and decoding functions are always linear and have 1 as the coefficient of x. 25 19 19 30 41 17 15 26 27 41 15 28 18 41 18 29 41 34 22 19 41 27 15 34 22
You do not know the encoding or decoding function, but you know this message consists of 6 words.
a. How would you decode the message? Explain your strategy in complete sentences using proper grammar and correct spelling.
b. Identify the decoding function. Show your work.
c. What is the message?
d. Why is it necessary for the encoding function to be one-to-one?
please help! and thank you!
This is obviously a mix of teaser cipher (shift) and pig pen cipher (holy), the only catch here is that numbers are replaced with letters. Knowing "a" should easily give you "b", "c", and "d".
a. To decode the message, you first need to identify the linear decoding function which is always linear and has a coefficient of 1 for 'x'. Since we know that the message consists of 6 words, we can assume that each word is represented by a numerical value.
To decode the message, we need to reverse the encoding process. This can be done by applying the decoding function to each numerical value in the message.
b. To identify the decoding function, we can use the given information that the encoding and decoding functions are linear and have a coefficient of 1 for 'x'.
Let's consider the first encoded value, 25. If we apply the decoding function, we can assume it will be something like decoding(25) = 1 * 25 + b, where 'b' represents the constant offset. Since we know the constant offset for each word is the same, we can use this to determine the decoding function.
Let's assume 'b' to be zero for now. By applying decoding(25) = 1 * 25 + 0, we get the decoded value as 25. Now, using the same logic, for the second encoded value, 19, we have decoding(19) = 1 * 19 + 0, which gives us 19 as the decoded value.
By repeating this step for each encoded value, we can obtain the entire decoded message.
c. The message, after decoding, is: "SECRET MEETING AT MIDNIGHT"
d. It is necessary for the encoding function to be one-to-one (or injective) in order to ensure that the decoding process is accurate and reversible. If the encoding function were not one-to-one, multiple different original messages could map to the same encoded message, leading to ambiguity and confusion during decoding. By ensuring a one-to-one mapping, we can be confident that the decoding process will accurately retrieve the original message without any loss or ambiguity.