“F14.6b: keyword alphabets from the puzzle words around every move of the type-1 library (either order), the key a word of any length 1-26; every setting decided exactly by the known letters, the key words looked up; K4 against 30 shuffles, 8 plants”
F14.6b (issue #93; reports/f14.6-grammar.md form 10). 0129 and 0130 put one free alphabet (any of 26!) around every type-1 move and found fits from key length 6 at the copies' rate, undecidable. Here the alphabets are the keyword alphabets of the 170 puzzle words (plain side, cipher side or both; with the standard or KRYPTOS alphabet on the other side), plus the four standard/KRYPTOS pairs: 854 tables x 2 forms x 27,852 moves x 2 orders x key lengths 1-26, each decided exactly by the 24 known letters (the same-slot places must ask the same key value; packed as bit masks per move). Every surviving setting's forced key is then checked against every dictionary and puzzle word of the length, every start, numbered on standard, KRYPTOS, the plain or the cipher alphabet, any shift, in the Vigenere, variant and Beaufort readings.
Three hand steps the creators taught each other: scramble the alphabet with a word, shuffle the letters through a grida grid Writing the message into rows of some width and reading it out in another order, column by column for instance, which shuffles the letters without changing them. as in the third section, then use 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 a key wordthe secret word The word or string a cipher needs besides the method.. We try every grid shuffle in our library, every alphabet made from a word of the puzzle, and every key length, and the clue wordsthe 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 which combinations are possible. For those we check whether the key is an English 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.
the idea
F14.6b: Scheidt's mask as an alphabet from a puzzle word, K3's grid shuffle, then K1's table with a key word.
the check
2,473,703,232 settings per text decided exactly by the known letters; every fitting key checked against every word.
the bound
No key word on K4 or any shuffle; fit counts never above every shuffle; plants 8 of 8: dead.
2
Experiment lineage
What this experiment was built on, from the lineage page: 8 experiments before it, back to the root of its line. Its number is in bold.
keptreverted, in its family's colour×error or timeoutreverted under today's rulesbuilt on a parent in the same familybuilt on a parent in another family
3
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 under Result and bounds below.
4
Walkthrough, by hand
Redo the method on a few letters with pencil and paper.
Take a puzzle word, say SHADOW, and write its keyword alphabet: SHADOWBCEFGIJKLMNPQRTUVXYZ.
Take a move, say a quarter turn of a grid 7 wide, and find where each known letter lands in the carved text.
Take a key length, say 11: each known letter's key slot is its landing place mod 11.
On the table with SHADOW's alphabet, work out the key value each known letter needs; two in one slot must agree.
If all agree, read the key letters off the slots and look for an English word that gives them from some start.
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.
SHADOW's keyword alphabet SHADOWBCEFGIJKLMNPQRTUVXYZ on both sides, added form, no move, key length 11:
place known carved key value slot
22 E F 1 10
23 A L 12 0
24 S R 19 1
25 T V 2 2
33 S S 0 10
34 T S 6 0
66 R P 24 10
67 L V 8 0
Places in the same slot must ask the same key value; with a move, the slot is the landing place mod 11.
6
Hypothesis, for a cryptanalyst
Family, key space, the constraint under test, and the clues it reads.
C1(a) (Sanborn, CNN 2005: 'I used a matrix code, and then... went back to this table'), C4(a) (Scheidt's mask as a keyword alphabet), C5 ('key word/s'), C27(c) (a 'slightly different' table). The mask (a keyword alphabet), K3's matrix and K1/K2's table in one procedure of three hand steps, every key from the puzzle's own words. A free alphabet leaves these cells undecided (0129, 0130; F6.1 blocked by cost); 170 alphabets are under 8 bits, so the known letters decide. Pre-registered: no setting fits K4 beyond the shuffles' counts, per order and key length (52 cells; flag at p < 0.05/52 against 30 shuffles: unreachable, so a cell above every shuffle is a candidate to replicate); no key word fits K4. A plant (Carter, random puzzle table, move, order and dictionary key word) is found when its setting survives and its key word comes back.
7
Prediction
Written before the run; the result decides it.
K4 fits at the shuffles' rate in every cell (few settings below length 16); no key word on K4; plants 8 of 8.
8
Method
Moves: 0129's type-1 library (27,852 distinct, from its frozen route_library). Orders: A (move, then the table: slot = landing place mod L) and B (table, then the move: slot = message place mod L).
Tables: for each puzzle keyword alphabet W, (W, W), (W, std), (std, W), (W, KRY), (KRY, W); plus std/KRY pairs. Forms: added (Vigenere and variant agree on consistency) and Beaufort.
Per text, table and form: forced key value at each known place for every move at once; the pairs of known places that disagree packed as bits; a (move, order, L) setting survives if no disagreeing pair shares a slot.
Survivors: key words of length L (dictionary 3-24, puzzle 2-30) matched at the covered slots up to a shift, four numberings, three readings.
K4 and 30 shuffles; 8 plants with their own known letters; K4's key-word fits decrypted and submitted.
9
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
2,473,703,232 settings per text; key-word hits K4 0, shuffles max 0; cells with K4 above every shuffle 0 of 52; plants 8/8