#226 On reflection
Set by Mary Ellis
Hannah handed me a piece of paper with the following string of letters.
XTXUXVHXUXOXUXHVXUXTX
“Each letter stands for another one,” said Hannah.
“Ooh, a substitution cipher!” I thought. But I was stumped.
“Is this just one word?” I asked.
“No, I’ve removed all the spaces,” said Hannah. “I think if I told you where the first space is, you might get the answer very quickly. You’ll probably recognise it.”
I happened to look at it in the mirror. “Wow, what are the chances of that?”
“Well, it isn’t entirely a coincidence,” said Hannah.
“Aha!” I said, though I was still none the wiser. Can you decipher the text for me?
Solution next week
#225 Dominoku
Solution
Counting up, we are short of two 2s, two 3s and two 6s. The top left corner must contain a 3-2 domino, so that combination isn’t missing. This means the missing dominoes must be 2-2, 3-3 and 6-6. Hence, we can break up the 2-2-2 in the seventh row and the 3-3 and 3-2 in the bottom left, meaning 6-3 must be there. The only 2-1 on the grid is to the right of it, which forces 0-5 on the bottom row. Continuing from there leads to the solution:
Quick quiz #206
set by Bethan Ackerley
1 What was the third nation to launch a space satellite on its own rocket, after the US and the USSR?
2 Lipases, peptidases and glycosidases all belong to which class of enzyme?
3 Ploidy refers to the number of complete sets of what in a cell?
4 The element ytterbium is named after a town in which country?
5 Which of these dinosaur groups was primarily carnivorous: hadrosaurs, ankylosaurs or theropods?
Quick quiz #206
Answers
1 France, with Astérix in 1965
2 Hydrolases
3 Chromosomes
4 Sweden
5 Theropods