ERJ Brainteaser: June

Question 3: Crack the code

T-shirt on display at the Nokia stand during last week's MOVE new-mobility expo in London.

Answer: Key here to recognise the digits as ASCII code for NETWORK, as neatly explained (see Solutions below) by: Amparo Botella, responsable de Compras y Calidad, Ismael Quesada SA, Elche, Alicante, Spain; Stephan Paischer, head of product management and market intelligence, Semperit AG Holding, Vienna, Austria; Bharat B Sharma, Techno Waxchem PVT Ltd, Kolkata, India / Raisha Chemicals Vadodara, India; John Coleman, membership manager, Circol ELT, Dublin, Ireland; Kamila Staszewska, R&D / quality lead, Abcon Industrial Products Ltd, Cootehill, Co. Cavan, Ireland; Sudi Sudarshan, principal consultant, Global Mobility Strategies, USA; Peter D. Talbot, research scientist, Chem-Trend LP, Howell, MI, USA; Andy Longdon, technical sales manager, Ceetak Ltd, Bedford UK; and everyone else who had a go. 

Indeed, not all of us are so familiar with ASCII code, so special mention also to Andrew Knox, Rubbond International, Ohé en Laak, The Netherlands, who came up with two alternative approaches (see below).

SOLUTIONS

Amparo Botella

So, be that each 8-digit binary number represents an ASCII character

01101110 → n

01100101 → e

01010100 → t

01010111 → w

01001111 → o

01010010 → r

01001011 → k

Peter D. Talbot

Text can be represented by integer code called ASCII or Unicode so that it can be conveniently “read” by computers. Conversely, this computer code can be translated back into text. Each text character such as letters from the alphabet or numbers can be represented by a unique binary code. The binary numbers in the puzzle are as follows:

01101110 = N

01100101 = E

01110100 = T

01100111 = W

01101111 = O

01110010 = R

01101011 = K

John Coleman

By converting each of the binary codes into decimal numbers, and then identifying the relevant ASCII characters associated with those numbers, you get “network”.

Binary                    Decimal               ASCII

01101110           110                         n

01100101           101                         e

01110100           116                         t

01110111           119                         w

01101111           111                         o

01110010           114                         r

01101011           107                         k

Sudi Sudarshan

Solution: The binary numbers displayed when translated to decimal numbers and decoded from ASCII to text yields the answer NETWORK

BINARY        ASCII (Decimal)      Text

01101110          110               N

01100101        101                E

01110100        116                T

01110111        119                W

01101111        111                O

01110010        114                R

01101011        107                K

ALTERNATIVELY

Andrew Knox

The numbers on the teeshirt look like they could be binary numbers but the first "0" in that case would be redundant. The 7 binary numbers (if indeed seven 8-digit numbers) when  converted to decimal numbers  give (from top downwards) the following decimal equivalents: 110,101,116,119,111,114,107. Added together, these total 778. No idea what the significance might be.

If I assign numbers to letters, i.e A - Z = 1 - 26, and repeat, it gives FWLOGJC, which I suppose could be FlOWLOGIC or something in Finnish, or subtracting 100 first gives JAPSKNG. I think I'm going to concede this one....

New teaser on Monday

0 (Green); 1 (Red); 2 (Black); 3 (?); ...

Answer: Our top Brainiacs quickly identified red as the answer to this week’s teaser, though there was also an interesting alternative solution (see below). Very well done to: Amparo Botella, responsable de Compras y Calidad, Ismael Quesada SA, Elche, Alicante, Spain; John Bowen, consultant, Bromsgrove, UK; John Coleman, membership manager, Circol ELT, Dublin, Ireland; Andrew Knox, Rubbond International, Ohé en Laak, The Netherlands; Kamila Staszewska, R&D / quality lead, Abcon Industrial Products Ltd, Cootehill, Co. Cavan; Bharat B Sharma, technical director, TWC Group- Rajsha Chemicals Pvt. Ltd & Techno Waxchem Pvt. Ltd, Vadodara, India; Peter D. Talbot, research scientist, Chem-Trend LP, Howell, MI, USA; and everyone else who had a go. 

SOLUTIONS

Amparo Botella

I believe there are the colours of the roulette wheel.

The number 0 is green and the rest numbers are red and black, what means that:

0 Green

1 Red

2 Black

3 Red

4 black

5 red

And so on…….

So the number 3 will be Red.

John Bowen

On a roulette wheel, 0 is green, and from 1 to 10 odd numbers are red and even black, so 3 Red then 4 Black and so on.

John Coleman

The colour related to 3 is red again as this is the numbering of a roulette wheel.

Andrew Knox

Answer: 3 is Red.

These are the colours of the numbers on a standard Roulette wheel, where all are either red or black with the exception of zero.

Kamila Staszewska

The colours represent pockets on a roulette wheel - 3 is Red.

Peter D. Talbot

These are colours of numbers on a roulette wheel. Therefore, the number 3 is red.

ALTERNATIVELY

Bharat B Sharma

0 (Green); 1 (Red); 2 (Black); 3 (?); ...

The next colour in the sequence could be Blue based on following analogy:

If pattern is based on the RGB colour model

0 (Green)  -- RGB (0, 1, 0)

1 (Red)  ---   RGB (1, 0, 0)

2 (Black)---- RGB (0, 0, 0)

3 (Blue)   -- RGB (0, 0, 1)

New teaser on Monday

A signal (France); He clings (Germany); Single (Spain); Shingle (UK).

Answer: Only two correct replies here, so extra well done to: John Coleman, membership manager, Circol ELT, Dublin, Ireland; Kamila Staszewska, R&D / quality lead, Abcon Industrial Products Ltd, Cootehill, Co. Cavan; and everyone else who had a go.

SOLUTIONS

Kamila Staszewska

These words are anagrams of “English” spelled in each language:

French anglaise

German englisch

Spanish ingles

English English

John Coleman 

A: Each phrase is an anagram of the word for "English" in that country's language.