Thursday 6 August 2009

Reader Question 1

This question was submitted by a reader, Nikhil Dhar.

Connect the following:

1)

2) Cribs

3) Bletchley Park

7 comments:

Rahul said...

Enigma machine?

The picture looks like a code machine and Bletchley park was where they tried to decode enigma. I dont have any link to "cribs"...

Nikhil said...

The connection is the Allied code breakers during WWII (Alan Turing etc.)

I think the 1st picture is Colossus (the 1st computer, also used in breaking the Enigma code), Bletchley Park is where they worked, cribs as far as I remember means the encrypted text?

PS said...

random guess: Lady Ada.
No connect.. :(

Kiran Vyakaranam said...

1) is some kind of computer used for code breaking at 3)Bletchley park...no clue what 2)cribs is...

AJ said...

connect is the bombe, the machine used to decipher Enigma code during WW2. It used Cribs pieces of short text to decipher the code and was placed in Bletchley Park (I have to admit using Wiki to get at Cribs and the location, I recognized the machine in the picture).

IC said...

The link is the Enigma machine.

I had a vague notion about the fact it was breaking the code during WW2, but rest I read on Wiki.
Nice question!

The Answer said...

The picture shows Turing's bombe, which was used to decode the encryption scheme of enigma. Cribs was the technique used to decode enigma. Bletchley Park was the headquarters of Britain's decryption establishment, and was the place where Turing worked.

Congrats to Nikhil for getting the answer. Rahul was close to the answer, but wes not able to figure out what cribs meant. Kiran had the idea right, but didnt get the answer. Anshul and Ishani also got close, but they used wiki, so their guess doesn't really count.