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reply to exam
MAJOR nit on question 59: Solving encrypted messages by checking letter frequencies is the stuff of puzzles in popular magazines and children's books. The Enigma cipher was '''much''' more difficult than that. The rotors advanced, completely changing the permutation, after every letter. Solving the Enigma cipher required the concentrated effort of the best minds of the British mathematics community. See "Alan Turing: The Enigma" by Andrew Hodges for a readable, but not ''too'' technical account, of the problem and the way it was attacked.
MAJOR nit on question 59: Solving encrypted messages by checking letter frequencies is the stuff of puzzles in popular magazines and children's books. The Enigma cipher was '''much''' more difficult than that. The rotors advanced, completely changing the permutation, after every letter. Solving the Enigma cipher required the concentrated effort of the best minds of the British mathematics community. See "Alan Turing: The Enigma" by Andrew Hodges for a readable, but not ''too'' technical account, of the problem and the way it was attacked.
: I don't know if I'll bother grading your exam, because you defiantly answered both the boys and girls extra credit question. You're not both.
: Your "minor nit on question 53" is wrong. See [http://www.magnacharta.org/]
: Your "major nit on question 59" is also wrong. British mathematicians did not crack the Enigma; Polish mathematicians did, and part of the decrypting was based on letter frequency. Godspeed.--[[User:Aschlafly|Andy Schlafly]] 22:04, 4 June 2009 (EDT)