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The Lumenary
कक्षा 3–5Applied Mathematicsपाठ उपलब्ध

Secret codes

Hiding messages with simple codes: Caesar shifts on an alphabet wheel, substitution ciphers, breaking codes by counting letter frequencies, and why the alphabet 'wraps around'.

math.applied.secret-codes

इस पर आधारित

3 अनिवार्य पूर्वापेक्षाएँ (बिल्कुल नीचे तक)

आप सीखेंगे

  • Encode and decode messages with a Caesar shift using an alphabet wheel.
  • Break a Caesar cipher by trying every shift, and a simple substitution cipher by counting letter frequencies.
  • Explain why shifting past Z wraps around to A.

परिभाषा

  • A cipher is a rule for turning a message into a disguised form and back again.
  • A Caesar shift replaces each letter by the letter a fixed number of places later in the alphabet, wrapping round from Z to A.
  • The key is the secret information needed to decode a message, such as the size of the shift.

प्रमेय

  • A 26-letter alphabet has only 25 non-trivial Caesar shifts, so the cipher can be broken by trying them all.
  • A shift forward by k is undone by a shift forward by 26 − k.
  • In English text some letters, such as E, are much more common than others, which helps to break substitution ciphers.

आम भ्रांतियाँ

  • Thinking a code is secure because the message looks scrambled.
  • Forgetting to wrap around at the end of the alphabet.

वैकल्पिक खोजें

आगे पढ़ने के लिए

  • Simon Singh, The Code Book (1999)