Using Ciphers: Part One

The Ceasar cipher is a cipher reportedly used by the famous Roman general Julius Ceasar to communicate with his allies. It is a very simple cipher which is easy to encrypt and to decipher. But, how do you use the Ceasar cipher? Well, I can teach you that! First you pick what message you want to encrypt. For example, "The cat jumped over the moon." Then, you need to choose how much you want to shift it. Let's say a right shift by 5. That means A becomes F as the letter is shifted by 5. So, the alphabet which was "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ" becomes "FGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDE." The message becomes "Ymj hfy ozruji tajw ymj rtts." To decrypt is a simple matter of guess and check. One tip you can keep in mind is that in long messages keep an eye out for the most common letter as there is a chance that that letter is "E". The reason for this? Well, it is the most common letter written.

As time moved on the Ceasar cipher proved inadequate as it is easy to decrypt so the Polyalphabetic cipher. A good cipher is a cipher which makes the letter distribution equal. The Polyalphabetic cipher was widely used by the 15th century. Let's encrypt the same message using the Polyalphabetic cipher.

Polyalphabetic table:

First you need a shift word. Let's say "fiddle". First you need to change the letters in the word into numbers by using the placement of the letter in the alphabet. So, A becomes 1 and B becomes 2. The alphabet which was "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ" becomes "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26." The shift word becomes "6 9 4 4 12 5." Then you apply it to the message.
                
      T h e      c a t      j u m p e d      o v e r      t h e      m o o n.
 6   9   4     4 12 5   6   9  4   4   12 5     6   9  4  4   12 5   6     9    4  4   12

Then you shift the letter by whatever number is below so "T" is shifted to the right by 6 spaces. The end result is "Zqi gmy pdqtqi ueiv fmk vssz." Why is it better? Well, it uses multiple shifts instead of 1. Now, in order to break any code you need to look for leaks of information. In this case, you can find that the sequence repeats every 6 letters.

I think that using ciphers is an entertaining way to improve your logical skills. You can use this to send secret messages to your friends and you can ask your friends to write back so you can try to decode their message. I got this information from Khan Academy's series of lessons on cryptology.

Picture source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AVigen%C3%A8re_square_shading.svg
By Brandon T. Fields (cdated) [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons                                             

DST: Is it worth it?

First of all what is DST? 

DST (daylight saving time) is the practice of turning forward the clock during summer by one hour thus "increasing" the amount of daytime in a day and then back in autumn to "normal time". DST is generally practiced in only colder countries as sunny days are rarer in those countries. But, in tropical countries they do not need DST as these countries have too much sunny weather most of the year. 

George Vernon Hudson from New Zealand was the first person to invent modern DST so that he can spend more time collecting insects in his free-time after his job. So in 1895 he wrote two papers to propose the benefits of DST. Ten years later an English golfer called William Willet was dismayed that most Londoners sleep through most of the summer days. He also was saddened that he needed to stop his golfing session at dusk. So, after two years of observation, he published his solution of turning forward the clocks during summer months. However, the British parliament did not make it a law.

DST was first implemented by Germany and Austria-Hungary on 30 April 1916 to conserve coal during the ongoing First World War. The Allies soon followed suit but after the war it was abandoned except for a few countries such as the UK and Canada. During the Second World War it was also adopted. World-wide use came during the 1970s energy crisis were oil costs sky-rocketed.

Conclusion: I think DST should be used depending on the place.

Bloodhound SSC

As a new year begins more scientific tests will be conducted to break the existing records. Among these tests, the one that caught my eye is the Bloodhound SSC (Super-Sonic Car) project. Its goal? To break the land speed record.

It will be tested in early 2015 at South Africa Hakskeen Pan. The driver will be Andy Green. He is the one who drove Thrust SSC which is the car that set the previous land speed record. The project director is Richard Noble, the man who started the Thrust 2 and the Thrust SSC. The test will be conducted on a 12 mile track. The current land speed record is 763.035 mph. The aim of Bloodhound SSC is to reach 1,050 mph or Mach 1.4. The car is calculated to reach 1,000 mph in 55 seconds. At its top speed, the wheels will spin at 10304 rpm.  The car will travel 150 meters in the blink of an eye.  The car will be faster than a Magnum 357 bullet when the car reaches the maximum speed.

The main competitors of Bloodhound SSC are the RV1 from the bullet project, the Aussie Invader 5R designed by Australian drag race record-holder Rosco McGlashan and the North American Eagle which is actually based on the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter.

Summary: I am really, really excited about this project. I think that this is a great way to encourage youth to get into science. Good luck to all these projects!

Video Game Review: Spintires 2014

This game is about driving old Soviet-era trucks to deliver lumber through rugged terrain full of mud, rocks and rivers. You have to manoeuvre these huge trucks through whatever nature throws at you. You also can use off-road cars to explore the terrain.

A truck driving across mud

I got it 33% discount on Steam. The first time I logged on to play, my truck got stuck in the mud. You will have to get used to that when you are playing Spintires. This game is about planning to avoid obstacles instead of just gunning the throttle and that's what makes it stand out from other racing games. If you just put you foot down on the throttle you will get stuck in the mud and even if you try to get out you can't as that will cause you to get stuck even deeper.

Another thing that makes it stand out is the physics. You can really feel the trucks weight as it deforms the mud leaving huge tire tracks in it's wake. The water physics is also really good, you can see the truck creating waves in the water. Plus a running river does wash away the truck albeit slowly. You can smash down smaller trees. There is also damage model. The graphics are really beautiful.

A truck pulling a fuel tanker across a lake at night.

A map called "River" in Spintires

You have to deliver trees from the logging camp to the designated point. You have lots of add-ons which do many things such as carrying fuel and repairing other vehicles. The map is quite small but you move so slowly that it feels huge! There are some vehicles scattered around that you might have to repair and refuel to drive again. There are also buildings such as the fuel tank to refill the tank of the truck and the add-ons if it's available. There aren't many vehicles however there are a lot of mods to add more vehicles. At the start of the game you will find that, on the mini-map, most of it is covered by "cloaks" which makes the terrain not visible. You have to go to the centre of the area on the mini-map that the cloak covered in order to reveal the terrain.

Conclusion: This is a very good game with good physics and graphics. However, the direction of the game camera is awful. That's why I give this game a 9/10. Here is the link to the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiOt7SuHGPM.

Moved to Malaysia

I moved to Malaysia as my father has relocated here. I am going to study at an international school called Rafflesia. I have already passed PSLE in Singapore.  Then I took an entrance test at the new school and has been accepted to attend Secondary 2. Here is the schools website:http://welcome.rafflesia.edu.my/. I am excited to study the Cambridge Secondary subjects because the syllabus is different from the one in Singapore.

Neutron stars

An artists depiction of a neutron star

Neutron Stars are the left-overs of stars that have died in supernovae. They are the smallest and densest stars ever found. They are very rare and very small. However, they are extremely interesting.

A supernova happens at the end of a giant star's life when they are unable to stop the heavy core of the star from collapsing under the gravity that it produces. This causes a huge implosion, which is the opposite of an explosion, often burning brighter than an entire galaxy. When all the materials from the outer shell is ejected, a lone neutron star, about the size of a city, shines dimly.

The inner structure of a neutron star.
The inner core's structure is unknown

This neutron star, approximately 140000 times smaller than the Sun, weighs up to 3 times as heavy as the Sun! A single teaspoon of neutron star weighs as much as a mountain. Thus, the strong gravitational forces and magnetic fields of the neutron star will destroy any object that comes too close to it.


In conclusion neutron stars are very strange and dangerous. However I am fascinated by them.


Credits for an artists depiction of a neutron star:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ANeutron_star_cross_section.svg
By Robert Schulze (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Credits for the inner structure of a neutron star: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ANeutron_star_illustrated.jpg
By Casey Reed - Penn State University (Casey Reed - Penn State University) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Vidoe Game Review : OpenTTD

OpenTTD

This is a COMPLETELY FREE (!) free and open source game based on

 Chris Sawyer's 1995 game Transport Tycoon and Transport Tycoon Deluxe. You use buses, trucks, trains, planes and ships to transport passengers and goods over a 32 bit landscape with towns, cities, factories and farms.

You start (by default) in the beginning of 1950 and then you build a transport empire until...forever. You can set AI opponents to compete with. There are random disasters that happen and they can damage your transportation empire. There are new vehicles every few years. There are different landscapes that you can play like sub-artic and Toyland (OH GOSH MY EYES! :o) but they only slightly change the mechanics.

Lastly since there are a lot of mods like one that puts you on the fictional third moon of Pluto called Nix (but that one's not completed yet) and some that enhances AI.

Conclusion: The game is very hard if you don't understand how it works but I still like as you can watch you empire slowly but surely grow. Go to the OpenTTD Wiki to see all the vehicles. I give it a 8 out of 10.