Monday Microsofty 87: Are You As Good a Detective As You Think?
Here’s a test from the world of codebreakingThe world’s most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, was a genius at encryption and code-breaking.
In “The Adventure of the Dancing Men”, Holmes is presented with mysterious drawings of stick-figure “dancing men”: left at various locations. He quickly realizes these are a form of substitution cipher, where each figure represents a different letter of the alphabet. By analyzing letter frequency and recurring patterns (a classic cryptanalysis method), Holmes deciphers the code, revealing hidden messages that are central to solving the case.
Holmes, of course, was fictional. The most famous real-life codebreaker is Alan Turing (1912–1954), who helped to break the Enigma code used by the Nazis in World War II. His story is depicted in the movie The Imitation Game, where Benedict Cumberbatch plays Turing.
But now let’s see how good you are at codebreaking. Here are two codes for four numbers:
- 3, 1, 0 represents the number 2
- 5, 0, 99, 86 represents the number 4
- 13, 9, 99, 9, 12 represents the number 7.
- 9, 6, 98, 87, 3 represents the number 8
So here’s this week’s Micro Softy: How would you represent the number 10 using the same coding? What about the number 4?
Solution to Micro Softy 87: Dr. Marks’s Incredible Ice Diet:
Image Credit: miss irine - Dr. Marks’ Incredible Ice Diet claims to be a simple, physics-based weight-loss concept that relies on the body’s energy expenditure to warm and melt ice. The diet hinges on the scientific definition of a calorie: the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 cubic centimeter of water by 1 degree Celsius at 1 atmosphere of pressure. By applying this to a standard ice cube, about 27 cubic centimeters at −18°C, the body must burn roughly 1,485 calories to bring it to body temperature (37°C). That’s comparable to burning off five jelly doughnuts, three Big Macs or ten scoops of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream!
Here’s what’s wrong with the analysis. The calories in the ice diet are normally written with a lowercase c. But dietary calories, written with an uppercase C, are equal to a thousand little c calories. 1500 calories from an ice cube corresponds to about 1.5 dietary Calories.
Therefore, you would need to eat a thousand ice cubes to cancel out the caloric input of five jelly doughnuts, three Big Macs or ten scoops of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream to compensate.
Dr. Marks’ Incredible Ice Diet doesn’t work.
Bummer. Get out and get more exercise.
The Monday Micro Softy is a weekly feature of Mind Matters News. Here are the links to all the puzzles and answers to date:
Monday Micro Softy 86: Dr. Marks’s Incredible Ice Diet: Here’s a breakthrough announcement that will be a blessing to all the people in the world like me who struggle with weight control. To solve Micro Softie 85, ask yourself, when would a slightly smaller caliber bullet than the enemy uses be a definite advantage?
Monday Micro Softy 85: Are you up to caliber? There is a serious question here: Why might small differences in caliber matter? Why would a military force decide to use a slightly different caliber of bullets from the one used by the enemy force?
Monday Micro Softy 84: Meet the Followers What happens when everyone in the swarm is a follower? To solve last week’s puzzle, we should picture what must happen when every bug wants to place itself between two other bugs.
Monday Micro Softy 83: A Swarm of Cowards? In terms of swarm intelligence, what happens if we have a swarm of cowards instead of peacemakers? We continue to explore the way simple roles followed by unintelligent agents — even dumb bugs — can yield complex behavior.
Monday Micro Softy 82: When Bugs Break Up Fights. A surprising amount of intelligence of use in the computer industry can be learned from watching insects. To solve last week’s puzzle, keep in mind that every termite is doing the same thing. You can find puzzles 77 through 81 here as well.
Image Credit: wai - Monday Micro Softy 81: Termites are Surprisingly Smart. Provided we agree to count swarm intelligence, which we also use in computer science. Swarm intelligence enables the colony to converge on the shortest and most efficient path to food without any individual being especially smart.
Monday Micro Softy 80: The Digits of Least Significance. The patterns found in numbers can be useful as well as fascinating. Last week’s puzzle is also easier to solve if we observe some of the patterns that number theory reveals.
Monday Micro Softy 79: The Last Digits in Fermat’s Last Theorem. Did Andrew Wiles really prove Fermat’s Last Theorem? Today we offer you a chance to decide. About last week’s MicroSofty: Think of the probability issue as just a distraction…
Monday Micro Softy 78: Card Sharks That Bite Harder. You can beat the odds in some card games if you understand probability theory. Try your chances! Last week’s puzzle, like several others, is easy to solve if we use inclusive thinking about relationships.
Monday Micro Softy 77: Two Proud Texans I’m aware of no other state where businesses and citizens proudly fly their state flag. I live in McGregor, Texas, where Elon Musk’s Space X has a testing center, and occasionally, the testing of their rocket engines gently rattles the dishes on the shelves in my home.
Monday Micro Softy 76: The Smoking Gun explains a computer scientist or engineer, a law enforcement officer often relies on abductive reasoning to crack a case, so with this in mind, you will have to crack last week’s puzzle. You can find puzzles 55 through 75 here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 55: “It happens every spring.” Baseball, that is. Here’s a puzzle that takes in baseball’s summer. To solve last week’s puzzle, you don’t need to know the distance. Check the problem again for the number you do need to know. You can find puzzles 51 through 54 here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 50: Cutting through the cornbread. How did Yuri Senior cut the cornbread into eight identical portions using only three straight cuts? You can guess the answer to Microsofty 49 if you try the test question yourself at home, using a small mirror. Links to Microsofties 46 through 49 are here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 45: Can Tony beat the fast-food curfew? An early curfew on fast food service motivated a boy to exercise more vigorously. But how fast was he pedalling? To solve Micro Softy 44, recall that Tony doesn’t need to take the individual pills each day, only the prescribed amount of each. You will find links here to Micros Softies 41 through 44 as well.
Image Credit: BUDDHA - Monday Micro Softy 40: The fate of a false prophet. He wasn’t actually fired for being a false prophet but for something that his prophecy unintentionally revealed. The solution to Micro Softy 39 lies in considering an alternative possible meaning of a word commonly used in sports. You will also find links to Micro Softies 30 through 39 and their answers here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 29: A funeral lament in four lines. The funeral director was puzzled by Dan’s description of his relationship to the deceased but there was no question that his grief was sincere Here, you will also find links to Microsofties 22 through 29.
Monday Micro Softy 21: Finding More of the Deadly Fentanyl Pills. Here, you will also find links to Microsofties 11 through 20 as well.
Monday Micro Softy 11: What Happened to That Other Dollar? Here you will find links to the first ten Micro Softies. Have fun!
