快猫短视频

#226 On reflection

Set by Mary Ellis

Hannah handed me a piece of paper with the following string of letters.

XTXUXVHXUXOXUXHVXUXTX

鈥淓ach letter stands for another one,鈥� said Hannah.

鈥淥oh, a substitution cipher!鈥� I thought. But I was stumped.

鈥淚s this just one word?鈥� I asked.

鈥淣o, I鈥檝e removed all the spaces,鈥� said Hannah. 鈥淚 think if I told you where the first space is, you might get the answer very quickly. You鈥檒l probably recognise it.鈥�

I happened to look at it in the mirror. 鈥淲ow, what are the chances of that?鈥�

鈥淲ell, it isn鈥檛 entirely a coincidence,鈥� said Hannah.

鈥淎ha!鈥� 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鈥檛 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: