What is the answer to thispuzzle ?
Just so everyone is aware (in case you’re using a work PC or are otherwise concerned), clicking on the object in the link downloads four .pdf files.
Thanx ! I should have included that warning …:smack:
I find it odd that it is split into 4 pdfs. I did a quick-n-dirty paste job to help people who want to solve the puzzle without printing. I can still read the letters at this resolution.
Fibonacci spiral. I’m thinking Fibonacci sequence. The first few letters in the standard sequence seem to read “I’m a GCF” and the period conveniently falls on the 21st letter.
GCF = Greatest common factor? I can’t be bothered reading the rest, but you might like to play around with it.
…wrapped in a PDF. 
[sub]And yes, that lame joke was all I have to contribute at this moment.[/sub]
Perhaps of use: Adjacent Fibonacci numbers are the worst cases (in terms of time) for the classic Euclid’s Algorithm for finding GCDs.
I instantly got a 14 k of g in a f p d vibe from this.
C’mon !
Dopers can surely crack this !
Here is a link to the back ground of this. The four files were placed in newspaper boxes in four different cities. See this thread.
Yes, fibonacci seems to be involved here. If you skip letters using the fibonacci sequence like this:
skip first 1 letter, then 1, then 2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55:
you get “imagineanef”.
I’m pretty sure “imagine” can’t be a coincidence, but can’t figure out what it means.
Imagine an ef?
imagine a nef?
This is assuming I didn’t make a mistake when copying the letters to notepad. I wrote these letters, and I can’t be arsed to double check. 
iymhacqgaluicldoxnyifjvolbeijmjaghtcrnadamqihhkumyrhvjtldcwxtpnchyrwdptbeitmpaxloxewtprguvuljdnmzekolmyfndzizapetogribvcyrnhubtwfiouwxutpwzepajxtxowwbkggfwpvavpvajkwhnqwhpbxrmaljnjgetcwtriomxs
Did you perhaps count 45 instead of 55 for the last letter? I got Imagine a new… when I did it. Then what? We don’t have enough letters to skip 89 or 144, unless we paste the whole letter sequence together multiple times. This could get pretty tedious. Maybe I should write a program.
You are right, I checked, and it is indeed “imagine a new”.
Seems I did make a mistake when I copied the letters, it should be:
iymhacqgaluicldoxnyifjvolbeijmjaghtcrnadamqihhkumyrhvjtldcwxtpnchyrwdptbeitmpaxloxewtprguvuljdnmzekolmyfndzizapetogribvcyrnhubtvfiouwxutpwzepajxtxowwbkgfwpvavpvajkwhnqwhpbxrmaljnjgetcwtriomxs
And yeah, a program might help.
D’oh. Obviously I miscounted somewhere.:smack:
Still, I managed to get the methodology right, even if I was too lazy to do it properly.
Most of these puzzles I find more boring than challenging. Working out the methodology usually takes seconds, then you need to spend half an hour doing tedious repetitive legwork of counting letters or finding out which king of Spain preceded Philip the Undecided or something similar.
Huh. I’m just now catching this. I’m intrigued. I’m not good at cyphers, but I find these sorts of things fun and interesting.
What kind of cypher is that next bit? Anyone recognize it?
Heh. Looks like my guess in that thread was on the mark, but it would have been better if I actually tried my solution. :smack:
I don’t have any immediate ideas for this one, unfortunately.
Is there any other forum, besides the Dope, that is aware of this? More background, Here Come Dots?
Well, here’s a frequency analysis of the letters in the cipher:
a-1
b-1
c-6
d-4
e-0
f-6
g-5
h-5
i-3
j-2
k-0
l-0
m-2
n-2
o-1
p-2
q-0
r-1
s-3
t-2
u-5
v-3
w-2
x-3
y-5
z-4
0-9
1-4
2-4
3-7
4-1
5-1
6-5
7-2
8-0
9-7
108 total
It almost looks like it should be a substitution cipher, based on the frequency of letters and the repeating occurance of two- and three-letter combos in the ciphertext (like 30, 63, 300, 630) but it’s not quite working out for me. There’s a total of 31 unique characters in the ciphertext.
The paragraph mark at the beginning also suggests it’s in reverse order.