Experiment 115

“Two key words added, one from the puzzle and one from the whole dictionary (key word/s, layer two)”

0059 added two key words both taken from the puzzle. Here one word comes from the puzzle (the vocabulary, the words of K1-K3 and Sanborn's themes) and the other from the whole dictionary. Two words of lengths m and n make a key that repeats every lcm(m, n) letters, which can reach the lengths the cribs allow (KRYPTOS + ABSCISSA repeats every 56). Given the puzzle word and its starting place, the known letters force the other word at every slot it covers, so each case is a lookup among all rotations of dictionary words.

revertedstatus
experiment 59parents
6 mintime, all phases
0candidates
0/24known letters
unclocked
1

The experiment method

What the method does with the 24 known letters.

Using 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. twice, first with one secret word and then with another, is the same as using a single key made by addingVigenere The three rules of arithmetic a table can use: add the key letter to the message letter, subtract the message letter from the key letter, or subtract the key letter from the message letter. the two words letter by letter. If one of the words is from the puzzle itself, like KRYPTOS or ABSCISSA, 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. tell us exactly what the other word must be, letter by letter. So we only have to look it up: is it an English word, read from some starting letter? We try every puzzle word and every dictionary word.

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.

OBKRUOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWEASTNORTHEASTOTWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBBERLINCLOCKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEKCARIN: THE COPPER, ALL 97 LETTERS, THE 24 KNOWN PLACES IN ACCENTtwo keys one after the other act as their sum: take away KRYPTOS and what is left must be a second word, repeating with its own lengthEASTNORTHEASTBERLINCLOCKKRYPTOSKRYPTOKRYPTOSKRYPKRYPTOS repeated from place 1, under the known lettersRCNIWDVWTKJVWEJKYESPBSMWthe second word's letter each known place forcesan 8-letter second word: places 22, 30, 70 share slot 5 but ask for R, T, P: no such wordhere every one of the 8 slots is asked for two or more letters (8 of 8)171 puzzle words, every start, second words of 3 to 24 letters, 24 table rules: 572,880 cases per textsecond words fully forced with no clash: K4 0, ten scrambled coppers 0dictionary words found (any rotation): K4 0, ten scrambled coppers 0OUT: NO READING; NO PUZZLE WORD PAIRS WITH AN ENGLISH WORDEASTNORTHEASTBERLINCLOCK
the idea

Using the table twice, with one secret word and then another, is the same as one key made by adding the two words. If one is a puzzle word such as KRYPTOS, the known letters spell out the other, letter by letter.

the check

Take the puzzle word away at the 24 known places: what is left must repeat with the second word's length. Two known places in one slot that ask for different letters rule that length out.

the bound

572,880 cases per text: not one leaves a second word fully forced without a clash, on K4 or on any scrambled copper, and no dictionary word turns up.

2

Best candidate against the known letters

This experiment produced no candidate: the search ruled everything out before a full text was built. Its product is the bounded negative in section 7.

3

Walkthrough, by hand

Redo the method on a few letters with pencil and paper.

  1. Take KRYPTOS as the first word, starting at its K at place 1, and the sculpture's alphabet with Vigenere.
  2. At place 22 the key must turn E into F: key value 1 on the sculpture's alphabet. KRYPTOS gives letter 22 mod 7 = 0, K = 0, so the second word's letter there is value 1, R.
  3. Do this at all 24 known places. For a second word of length 8, place 22 falls on slot 21 mod 8 = 5.
  4. If two known places ask different letters of one slot, no word of that length fits; if all 8 slots are fixed, look up the 8-letter string in every rotation of every 8-letter word.
  5. Repeat for every puzzle word and start, every length, rule, and on scrambled coppers.
the worksheet: the first steps by hand, on squared paper
FIRST WORD KRYPTOS FROM ITS K AT PLACE 1; SCULPTURE'S ALPHABET, VIGENERE; SECOND WORD OF LENGTH 8placeknowncarvedkey valueKRYPTOSsecond wordslot (mod 8)22EF1KR523AL10RC624SR21YN725TV18PI030HN5RT531EG2YK664BN11KE7slot: letters asked for0: I V J M1: W W K W2: D Y3: V E4: W S5: R T P6: C K B7: N J E SKey value minus the KRYPTOS letter gives the second word's letter. Places 22 and 30 shareslot 5 but need R and T.Every slot is asked for two different letters: no 8-letter word fits.
4

Worked example, generated

The same steps run by the code on the real letters.

first word KRYPTOS from its K at place 1; sculpture's alphabet, Vigenere; second word of length 8

place  known  carved  key value  KRYPTOS letter  second word's letter  slot (mod 8)
   22      E       F          1               K                     R             5
   23      A       L         10               R                     C             6
   24      S       R         21               Y                     N             7
   25      T       V         18               P                     I             0
   30      H       N          5               R                     T             5
   31      E       G          2               Y                     K             6
   64      B       N         11               K                     E             7

slots asked for two different letters: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
5

Hypothesis, for a cryptanalyst

Family, key space, the constraint under test, and the clues it reads.

Scheidt: 'executed with the correct key word/s' (C5); K2 ends LAYER TWO; Vigenere applied twice with words of lengths m and n is one key k_i = a[(i + o1) mod m] + b[(i + o2) mod n] (0080 solved the free version for m, n <= 14 with no fit at 5+ checks, but long combined periods leave few checks, so only real words decide). Word a: every puzzle word of 2-30 letters (vocabulary.txt, the K1-K3 plaintext words, the extra theme words), every start o1. Word b: every dictionary word of 3-24 letters, every rotation (the start o2). For each table rule (Vigenere, Beaufort, variant; plain and cipher alphabets standard or KRYPTOS; key letters numbered on standard or KRYPTOS) the 24 known letters give b's letter at slot i mod n; a clash rejects; a fully forced b is looked up in the set of rotations. A hit decrypts all 97 letters. Ten shuffled coppers.

6

Prediction

Written before the run; the result decides it.

No pair fits on K4; the shuffled coppers give no or almost no hits either. Zero candidates.

7

Method

  1. Build the puzzle words and, for each length 3-24, the set of all rotations of dictionary words.
  2. For each rule, puzzle word and start, compute the key value forced at each known place minus the puzzle word's letter there.
  3. For each length n, place those values at slots (place mod n); reject a clash; if every slot is fixed, look the word up.
  4. Decrypt hits.
  5. Repeat on ten shuffled coppers.
8

Result and bounds

The harness's record: candidates, gates, loss, and the negative result this experiment leaves behind.

0candidates returned
0passed every gate
0/24known letters, best
–lowest loss
nonechampion before

171 puzzle words x starts x lengths 3-24 x 24 rules = 572,880 cases per text; fully forced second words: K4 0, controls [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]. Dictionary hits: K4 0, controls [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0].

What was searched, as the harness recorded it.

family
sum of a puzzle word and a dictionary word as the key
puzzle words
171
dictionary rotations by length
3
3,381
4
18,210
5
48,505
6
103,593
7
165,214
8
238,012
9
290,331
10
308,035
11
285,593
12
245,412
13
194,025
14
136,682
15
88,830
16
54,016
17
30,838
18
15,156
19
8,132
20
3,960
21
1,722
22
902
23
391
24
120
rules
24
cases per text
572,880
fully forced cases k4
0
fully forced cases controls
0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
k4 hits
none
n k4 hits
0
controls hits
0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
controls
10 shuffled coppers (seed 115), identical search

How this experiment sits among the others is on the lineage page; its family's open hypotheses are on the families page.

Rendered from the record on 2026-10-18 12:26 UTC; updated after every experiment.
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