The Unbreakable Enigma Machine
During WWII, the Germans believed that they had created an electronic cipher machine to send secret messages around that was unbreakable due to it's complexity called the Enigma Machine. The machine and its settings worked as follows:
- 3 rotors are chosen from a set of 5 where each has 26 starting points. They are placed in one of the 3 slots in a specific order and turned to the starting rotor number. Each rotor is different by how the circuits are wired inside.
- Every time a letter is pressed, the rotor on the right shifts by one number. For every complete rotation on the right rotor, the middle rotor shifts by one number. For every complete rotation on the middle rotor, the left rotor shifts by one number (just like the hour, minute, and second hands on a clock). Due to these shifts, the wires in the rotors shift, hence, a letter can be pressed twice but different letters will light up each time. For example, I could press the letter “A” and the letter “Q” lights up. But if I press “A” again, the letter “Y” might light up.
- For military enigmas, there is also something called the plugboard to complicate things even more. Here, you would plug pairs of letters together using 10 cables (i.e. letter “P” and letter “T” are connected together with a cable) as an extra step for the daily settings.
- With all these components, there is a total of 158,962,555,217,826,360,000 different combinations of settings to begin with to decode the message which also changed every day (Yes…that's in the quintillions).
However, the Allies did eventually find a way to crack the code daily through the help of a mathematician named Alan Turing. By using the flaws in the Engima (you can look these up yourself), Turing was able to create a machine (called the Bombe) that efficiently worked through the daily possible combinations and crack it before the end of that day. It basically reversed the Enigma code to get the setting as oppose to using the setting to get the Enigma code. Check it out, it’s actually quite fascinating!
The Cache
This cache is inspired by the Enigma. But compared to the real thing, the Geocaching Enigma is a joke due to it’s simplicity…comparatively, but it’s the best I could put together. Please be careful with it as it took a long time to build/wire and I would hate for it to break and need repairing.
DO NOT open the Geocaching Enigma that is locked with the key lock. It is not part of the puzzle but is to keep the wires safe and easy access for myself if maintenance is needed.
Now it’s your turn to break the Geocaching Enigma. There may not be rotors or plugboards on this one, but you do need to figure out how the Geocaching Enigma will help you unlock the combination lock.
NOTE: The combination lock is a REAL tight fit and may temporarily get stuck at some numbers. Don't fret! Turn it back a bit and try again, or GENTLY push the lock tighter together and try again. This is the work of an unqualified geoductape..... a rare and quirky species.... -_-
Again, you MUST sign the log book in order to claim a “Found It”.
For the FTF geocacher, there is $0.27 for you to claim as a reward!!!
CONGRATULATIONS TO paperclips29 for the FTF on Sunday, September 3rd, 2017 at 2:05pm!