“A puzzle word plus the misspelled letters as a second, short secret word”
Experiments 24 and 38 added the K2 coordinates or numbers from the story to a puzzle word. Sanborn said the misspellings matter for their orientation, so here the second part is made of letters instead: the wrong letters Q, U and A from IQLUSION, UNDERGRUUND and DESPARATLY, the right letters L, O and E, the raised YAR, and their reorderings, added to every puzzle word and every word of the solved messages.
Sanborn misspelled three words on purpose and said the misspellings matter. The wrong letters are Q, U and A; the right ones would be L, O and E. A few letters on the sculpture are also raised, spelling YAR. Here those letters become a second, very short secret word, added on top of a longer word from the puzzle or the solved messages, and the two together are used on the tablethe table The right-hand half of the sculpture, 26 rows of the alphabet each shifted one place further, starting from the word KRYPTOS.. With both words fixed there is nothing to guess, so we simply count how many of the 24 known lettersthe known letters Sanborn has confirmed that positions 22 to 34 of the message read EASTNORTHEAST and positions 64 to 74 read BERLINCLOCK. come out right, and compare with scrambled copies of the copper.
Words in the margin are defined on the glossary page.
1.1
The method at work
The carved letters go in at the top; the reading comes out at the bottom.
the idea
Sanborn's misspellings and raised letters spell short strings such as QUA, LOE and YAR. The experiment tried each as a short second key added to a puzzle word, one letter of each at every place.
the sum
Drawn for KRYPTOS and QUA on the standard alphabet: at place 22 the two key letters add to 0, so the carved F reads F where the message has E.
the bound
451,440 settings: the best, KNOWS with QEAU, lands 8 of 24; ten shuffled coppers searched the same way land 7 to 11. Chance.
2
Best candidate against the known letters
Laid out as the copper carries K4: OBKR ends the line that finishes K3, then three lines of 31. Left, as carved, the 24 known places in accent. Right, the candidate: a known place it gets right is an accent cell, one it misses is outlined. This is the candidate with most known letters right; none passed every gate.
in: the copper, always the same
as carved, 97 letters; the 24 known places in accent
ECDMRIPFEIMEHNLSSTTRTVDOHW?OBKR
UOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFLRVQQPRNGKSSO
TWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBNYP
VTTMZFPKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEKCAR
OBKR ends the line that finishes K3, then three lines of 31
out: the candidate
every place read; known places in accent, misses outlined
ECDMRIPFEIMEHNLSSTTRTVDOHW?GIEL
ISQGAHQIXAEFPFVXYEDLHQXFPBEJGAE
XBRGGLTWKYWOVKORKOHYNPKAQHENPER
SBNCLOJIWKUAXBBAMZUADAZUKZUIQQG
checked: the known letters in place, and the reading turns back into the copper
3
How the score is made
The loss of the best candidate, part by part. Zero is solved.
Known letters missed
16 of 24, ten points each
160.00
English
the 73 free letters score -8.02; English text scores -3.6
4.42
Key
458 bits to write it down (key words are cheap, arbitrary letters 4.7 bits each); each 60 beyond 60 costs a point
6.63
Loss
of 240, the worst possible
171.05 71.3%
4
Walkthrough, by hand
Redo the method on a few letters with pencil and paper.
Take the word KRYPTOS and the short key QUA, on the standard alphabet: K=10, R=17, Y=24, P=15, T=19, O=14, S=18 and Q=16, U=20, A=0.
Place 22 uses letter 21 mod 7 = 0 of KRYPTOS, K=10, and letter 21 mod 3 = 0 of QUA, Q=16: the key is 10 + 16 = 26 = 0.
Under plain Vigenere on the standard alphabet the carved F at place 22 then reads F - 0 = F.
The message has E there, so this setting misses place 22.
Count the misses over all 24 known places, then do the same for every word, short key, sign and table.
the worksheet: the first steps by hand, on squared paper
5
Worked example, generated
The same steps run by the code on the real letters.
place word letter short letter key carved reads message
22 K Q 0 F F E
23 R U 11 L A A
24 Y A 24 R T S
25 P Q 5 V Q T
6
Hypothesis, for a cryptanalyst
Family, key space, the constraint under test, and the clues it reads.
C10(a) and C22: the misspelt letters (Q in IQLUSION, U in UNDERGRUUND, A in DESPARATLY, and the dropped E of DESPERATELY) and the raised YAR as key material. Two-component key k[i] = W[i mod a] + s S[i mod b] (family 3, Scheidt's combined keys), W any vocabulary word or K1-K3/C13/C14 word, S every ordering of QUA, LOE, QUAE, LOEE and YAR, and DYAHR in carved order, s = +1 or -1; letters read as indices on the standard or KRYPTOS order; plain and cipher alphabets standard or KRYPTOS; Vigenere, Beaufort, variant Beaufort. The key is fully determined, so each setting decrypts and the 24 cribs are counted exactly. Control: the best count on ten shuffled coppers under the same settings. Bounds: complete for these words, orderings and conventions.
7
Prediction
Written before the run; the result decides it.
No setting recovers more than about 8 of the 24 known letters, the same as on the shuffles. Zero candidates pass.
8
Method
List the long words and the short-key orderings.
For each convention, compute the key index each crib requires.
For each word, ordering, sign and key alphabet, form the key at the crib places and count matches.
Decrypt the best settings and submit any with all 24.
Repeat the count on ten shuffles.
9
Result and bounds
The harness's record: candidates, gates, loss, and the negative result this experiment leaves behind.