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!