Changes

H7.  (counts as two answers) Explain the mathematics of how the Enigma was broken (decoded) including (if you like) some words about the field of cryptology today.

H7.  (counts as two answers) Explain the mathematics of how the Enigma was broken (decoded) including (if you like) some words about the field of cryptology today.

:(Counts as two answers) Explain the mathematics of how the [[Enigma]] was broken (decoded) including (if you like) some words about the field of cryptology today.'''  The actual code of the [[Enigma]] is very hard to write about and understand in any meaningful way, so I will try to make as much of it as possible comprehensible.  When you press a letter (e.g. L), the machine alters it up to nine times (with a minimum of seven) using a set of wheels with the alphabet on them that move much like a standard car odometer (with every 26 letters typed, the next wheel moves to the next spot.).  And it must be remembered that the moving of at least one wheel, for every new letter typed, introduced a new set of circuits for each new letter.  In addition, if you pressed one key over and over, you would get a different letter each time, but if you hit that same key 16,900 (26 x 25 x 26) times, the pattern would repeat.  Cryptologists use a method of code breaking that uses common letter patterns to their advantage: letter and pattern frequency, where the cryptologist would give an educated guess as to what common letter a repeated character is.  Also, some letters will appear frequently alongside each other. The most obvious example in the [[English]] language is TH as in 'the' or 'that'.  By combining these two weapons, the code breaker could make a reasonable guess that where a single letter appeared repeatedly after the T which he had already recovered from letter frequency, the unknown letter was probably H, particularly if the next letter that had already been recovered was an E.  (Jonathan R.)

: The actual code of the [[Enigma]] is very hard to write about and understand in any meaningful way, so I will try to make as much of it as possible comprehensible.  When you press a letter (e.g. L), the machine alters it up to nine times (with a minimum of seven) using a set of wheels with the alphabet on them that move much like a standard car odometer (with every 26 letters typed, the next wheel moves to the next spot.).  And it must be remembered that the moving of at least one wheel, for every new letter typed, introduced a new set of circuits for each new letter.  In addition, if you pressed one key over and over, you would get a different letter each time, but if you hit that same key 16,900 (26 x 25 x 26) times, the pattern would repeat.  Cryptologists use a method of code breaking that uses common letter patterns to their advantage: letter and pattern frequency, where the cryptologist would give an educated guess as to what common letter a repeated character is.  Also, some letters will appear frequently alongside each other. The most obvious example in the [[English]] language is TH as in 'the' or 'that'.  By combining these two weapons, the code breaker could make a reasonable guess that where a single letter appeared repeatedly after the T which he had already recovered from letter frequency, the unknown letter was probably H, particularly if the next letter that had already been recovered was an E.  (Jonathan R.)

H8.  Write about any aspect of the lecture.

H8.  Write about any aspect of the lecture.