Murderous Politics (Problem 1)
You are the Chancellor of France, Sir Anthony Stein. The President of France, Michelle Macron has been assasinated. The President left a blood-stained cryptogram on a table in the form of a two-sided note:
X D D D E E E A A A D D D
On the other side of the note, there are 3 people that she suspects:
A British MI6 agent - not present 2 hours before her death
A Canadian bodyguard - reported absent from his post 2 . 5 hours before her death
A top French government informer - not seen for 3 days
A second note is on the table. She wrote:
The person whose nationality's sum of letters (a = 1 , b = 2 , ... y = 2 5 , z = 2 6 ) is ≤ 1 0 0 is the person who assasinated me.
Solve the cryptogram - who murdered the French president?
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2 solutions
Without solving the cryptogram? @Darsh Kedia
Yes @Yajat Shamji . I looked at the nationality whose sum was highest while being less than 100.
You will notice that:
D 2 = D , E 2 = E , A 2 = A , D 2 = D .
Therefore
D , E , A , D 's values are either 1 or 0 - this becomes a binary cryptogram.
Since E and A should be different and D should be the same, there are only 4 combinations:
1 0 1 1 ∗ 1 0 1 1 = 1 2 1
1 1 0 1 ∗ 1 1 0 1 = 1 6 9
0 0 1 0 ∗ 0 0 1 0 = 4
0 1 0 0 ∗ 0 1 0 0 = 1 6
If you look at the note, it says ≤ 1 0 0 , which suggests it must be more than 100, therefore 1 0 1 1 ∗ 1 0 1 1 = 1 2 1 or 1 1 0 1 ∗ 1 1 0 1 = 1 6 9 is the binary cryptogram and the answer in denary. Then look at the nationalities:
British = 7 5
Canadian = 4 9
French = 5 4
In both cases, the British MI6 agent is closest to the denary answer
Therefore, the British MI6 agent killed the French president.
In case any of you are confused, the numbers next to the nationalities are the sum of the letters (a = 1, b = 2, ... z = 26). Also look for binary calculators. And finally, denary = decimal base.
I just chose the British MI6 Agent after noticing that his nationality's sum was the highest.