@ it doesn’t give anything towards the solve though, it’s just a fun little thing. So normally an easter egg, but maybe we should call it a Cristmas carol? 😅
3-2 is ER. It's do re mi backwards. 3-7 is CAM. If you go backwards to forwards it's Old Mac Don Ald. (He had a farm e i e i o) It seems that the end of the video he figures it out and the answers are put up.
He backsolved the answer, so knew the letters, but not that one answer at least in the video. EDIT: Missed the explanation in black, it's like given Sudoku digits.
You missed the binary numbers in the background of the front page of the card. Convert the binary into ASCII and it repeats "seasons greetings" over and over.
These sorts of puzzles are always fun to have a go at. I think what you said points out how they're missing the mark though. They say their goal is getting more young people into STEM, but then they make puzzles with a lot of references from the 70s that their target audience just won't know.
I’m 20 and have done these for a while and whilst I have a good amount of 70s knowledge from quizzing with my parents a lot of people my age definitely wouldn’t get some of the references. Some probably wouldn’t even get Blue Peter (despite it still being around) let alone the green cross code. I agree it’s a bit weird considering their target age range, but honestly so many quizzes and puzzles do this. A lot of people my age feel alienated from quizzing because we’re too young for half the questions and it’s rare for anyone to write a quiz with us in mind. We just have to study up on the 70s/80s because we’ve no chance otherwise
I heard about this puzzle on a German radio station and wanted to try it out myself, even though my native language is not English. So I don't know things like Blue Peter Badge and Green Cross Code. But I immediately saw Yellow Brick Road, Red Riding Hood and Brown Paper Bag and then googled what words I could form with the remaining words and found out that way. So it is possible to solve it, even if you don't know everything. Okay, I admit, I was briefly on the wrong track with Black and Panther, but then I finally decided on Pink Panther. 😅
@@zephie531 it's worrying that the youth do not know the Creen Cross Code. It is rule 7 in the current Highway Code; it starts: "7. *The Green Cross Code.* The advice given below on crossing the road is for all pedestrians. Children should be taught the Code and should not be allowed out alone until they can understand and use it properly..." It has been there since at least the 1970s - for at least the last approx 50 years! The Highway Code is effectively the Health and Safety manual for the roads and is essential reading for _all_ road users, including pedestrians who have a section devoted to their safety (through self preservation).
@ they know the rules for crossing, that’s still taught, but no one calls it the green cross code. I think ‘Stop, Look, and Listen’ was what I most often heard it called.
As demonstrated by Simon, it is possible to discern the answers without solving every single part of the puzzle. Black Pool Tower is the only UK landmark that can be made with those words.
I think this is such a fun video to do. I love that they contacted you and sent you a secret squirel letter! I wonder how many other puzzles are hidden in the card. There have been several mentioned by people in the comments. I wonder what else is hidden. Superfical fun for all, with more challenging, subtle puzzles for curious people.
I did this in bed the other day and it took me about an hour. I didn't get up to grab a pen though, so I'm quite happy with my time doing it all inside my head.
AHHHHH so that was the clue for it. I ended up guessing "Millenium Stadium" based on the postcard picture being around Cardiff, and the landmark having at least 18 letters to it. Have been looking at it for a couple of days on my lunch break even though I'd solved it trying to figure out what the final clue was. Cheers!
@@edchapman6371 Actually, there were a few things you needed to spot. First, the words ‘perhaps reading’ being in capitals. Second, the fact they are the same length as the 2 words at the start of the cipher, suggesting the need to compare them and then use the result as a guide to work out the rest (classic substitution ciphers have the form ‘keyword’ followed by all other letters in order). Third, a number of words and phrases are cryptic crossword hints to look at the first letters of each word (primarily, leading, initially). The fact the keyword is WALESRUGBYHQ is more of a bonus. I actually did the exact same as you but then realised it didn’t have enough letters so guessed the actual answer. I’d missed the second clue so it was nice to be able to make a decent educated guess!!
@@aarthur2803 it’s a reference to four of their other locations and what they are symbolic for - the doughnut is Cheltenham as their HQ there is shaped like one 🍩 , the bee is for their Manchester HQ as the bee is a known Mancunian symbol 🐝 , and the two satellite ones are for their Scarborough and Bude HQs and are satellites because those HQs conduct signal intelligence 📡
I just turned 15, completed this in rather quick pace, however if you roughly look at the map then you can most likely guess the locations, all you have to do is match them to which animal
So to address a point made elsewhere in the comments, did the somewhat aged references to things from the Seventies like the Green Cross Code cause you any problems?
@@craftsmanwoodturner I’m 20 and solved it myself, the only bits I didn’t get were the football thing (I’m not a fan, nor is anyone else in my family) and bassoon because it just completely slipped my mind (embarrassing I know). I know the green cross code and what not through my parents, but I could see other people my age struggling more if their parents don’t talk to them in references like mine do, or don’t do as many quizzes where 70s knowledge is kinda required. Honestly it makes a lot of people my age feel a bit shut out from quizzes and such because we’re too young for half of it, whether it’s the local pub quiz or on the radio or television. I do wish the people writing these things would think to do quizzes inclusive of younger people more often.
@ surprisingly not, however I was a bit confused when it had red riding hood and black panther but black panther didn’t have a third option so I deciphered that one quite quickly
@@craftsmanwoodturner Have you not read the Highway Code since the 1970s? In the latest edition of the Highway Code (published 2022) rule 7 starts: "7, *The Green Cross Code.* The advice given below on crossing the road is for all pedestrians. Children should be taught the Code and should not be allowed out alone until they can understand and use it properly..." It's not a 70s thing, it's a totally current thing which unfortunately most people don't seem to know, or want to know.
The concept of a government intelligence agency putting out a christmas puzzle is almost wholesome. Imagine any other agency doing that "Try 8 days of cryptograms with the Mossad Hannukah Puzzle Challenge!" "Can you crack the CIA's Annual Thanksgiving Code?"
The Dutch Intelligence agency also does this, and this years came out today! It is much harder though, and there is even a kids version I don't think I would be able to solve :)
Can someone explain the substitution cipher part? I thought the subbed letters were supposed to be in a defined pattern, but I can't see how it's working
In a substitution cipher, each letter in alphabet is assigned to another letter bijectively (not necessarily in order; that would instead by a simple shift of letters or a Caesar Cipher). So 'PERHAPS READING' which is capitalised as clue, maps directly onto the letters in the cipher below it (you can see E and R repeated as S and K, so you just need to then substitute all other instances of these letters in the remaining sentence (i.e. swap every S for an E etc). I find copying into MS Word and using 'find and replace all' can be useful. But be careful as swapping in letters which already appear in the cipher might get confusing and you need to track which ones have been changed somehow. After the letters from the clue are subbed, the other incomplete words should start resembling obvious words which you can make reasonable guesses. In general these can be solved by frequency analysis, so for long enough messages, we can assume the most common occurrences are E, T etc.
The full cypher alphabet used for this puzzle is: Cypher 》plain A B B I C M D N E D F O G H H K I P J Q K R L C M S N T I U P V Q L R F S E T W U G V X W A X Y Y J Z Z But it is easier when encyphering to have the plain alphabet first; rearranging to give plain 》cypher: A W B A C L D E E S F R G U H G I B J Y K H L Q M C N D O F P I Q J R K S M T N U O V P W T X V Y X Z Z so to encypher a message you look up the letter on the left and replace it by the letter on the right. To decipher you look it up on the right and place it by the letter on the left (rewriting the right in alphabetical order makes decypherment easier). This uses a keyword phrase to start the encypher alphabet which contains no repeated letters and is then followed by the rest of the letters of the alphabet in order - your recipient knows the keyword and can reconstruct the cypher from it.
@@riggmeister Frequency analysis is well known and measures can be taken to confound it (Gadsby by Ernest Wright would confound such analysis). A better measure, which requires more work, in solving simple substitution cyphers is analysis of diagrams - how letters touch other letters - in conjunction with frequency analysis: the way letters sit relative to other letters (and word ends) is very distinctive to every [written] language. To combat this analysis encypherment would encypher diagrams - every pair of letters is substituted by another pair of letters based on a table. Another way to confound frequency analysis is to use multiple alphabets - ideally one per letter of the message. A mechanical device for such an arrangement was Enigma, but it did have flaws which allowed an edge into the encyphered messages.
A little easter egg is that the animals on the postcard spell out RUDOLPH when putting them in order and using their first letter.
I think there are those kind of clues every step of the way, easter eggs for X-mas?
@ it doesn’t give anything towards the solve though, it’s just a fun little thing. So normally an easter egg, but maybe we should call it a Cristmas carol? 😅
@@allikin75 A sixpence? Because you traditionally hide one in the christmas pud?
@@D4N1CU5 That must be a tradition in UK, nothing I have ever heard of. :D How about we just call it a Christmas present.
Ah, that must be the third thing along with the morse and the binary messages!
3-2 is ER. It's do re mi backwards.
3-7 is CAM. If you go backwards to forwards it's Old Mac Don Ald. (He had a farm e i e i o)
It seems that the end of the video he figures it out and the answers are put up.
He backsolved the answer, so knew the letters, but not that one answer at least in the video. EDIT: Missed the explanation in black, it's like given Sudoku digits.
Mark might have missed this one because he's British, and "Old MacDonald" is an American folk song.
@@darreljones8645 No it's not. It's well known in Britain - although I also couldn't solve that one.
“To Simon and Mark … they know who we are”. They know who everyone is 👀
AS they say, keeping watch & care over all government customers.
I liked the fact that the numbers were roughly in the pattern of an aerial view of Stonehenge
Yay! So glad we're getting this solve again this year.
How on earth can you do that substitution in your head?? Mark you're a genius.
You missed the binary numbers in the background of the front page of the card. Convert the binary into ASCII and it repeats "seasons greetings" over and over.
They don't seem to be visible on his copy ? But you are right
These sorts of puzzles are always fun to have a go at. I think what you said points out how they're missing the mark though. They say their goal is getting more young people into STEM, but then they make puzzles with a lot of references from the 70s that their target audience just won't know.
I’m 20 and have done these for a while and whilst I have a good amount of 70s knowledge from quizzing with my parents a lot of people my age definitely wouldn’t get some of the references. Some probably wouldn’t even get Blue Peter (despite it still being around) let alone the green cross code. I agree it’s a bit weird considering their target age range, but honestly so many quizzes and puzzles do this. A lot of people my age feel alienated from quizzing because we’re too young for half the questions and it’s rare for anyone to write a quiz with us in mind. We just have to study up on the 70s/80s because we’ve no chance otherwise
I heard about this puzzle on a German radio station and wanted to try it out myself, even though my native language is not English. So I don't know things like Blue Peter Badge and Green Cross Code. But I immediately saw Yellow Brick Road, Red Riding Hood and Brown Paper Bag and then googled what words I could form with the remaining words and found out that way. So it is possible to solve it, even if you don't know everything.
Okay, I admit, I was briefly on the wrong track with Black and Panther, but then I finally decided on Pink Panther. 😅
@@zephie531 it's worrying that the youth do not know the Creen Cross Code. It is rule 7 in the current Highway Code; it starts:
"7. *The Green Cross Code.* The advice given below on crossing the road is for all pedestrians. Children should be taught the Code and should not be allowed out alone until they can understand and use it properly..."
It has been there since at least the 1970s - for at least the last approx 50 years!
The Highway Code is effectively the Health and Safety manual for the roads and is essential reading for _all_ road users, including pedestrians who have a section devoted to their safety (through self preservation).
@ they know the rules for crossing, that’s still taught, but no one calls it the green cross code. I think ‘Stop, Look, and Listen’ was what I most often heard it called.
As demonstrated by Simon, it is possible to discern the answers without solving every single part of the puzzle. Black Pool Tower is the only UK landmark that can be made with those words.
I think this is such a fun video to do. I love that they contacted you and sent you a secret squirel letter! I wonder how many other puzzles are hidden in the card. There have been several mentioned by people in the comments. I wonder what else is hidden. Superfical fun for all, with more challenging, subtle puzzles for curious people.
Was not expecting a new vid at 6AM, but I guess I'll watch this before finally going to bed. 🤣
Old Mac Don And was the missing one!
Thank you for this, my students loved it.
I love when y'all do these.
Much easier than previous
Plus the Morse Code when followed in the direction of Santa and his reindeer spells out "We wish you a Merry Christmas We wish you a Merry Christmas".
Mark mentions this.
Notice the shape of #6, that is a clue in itself.
#7 is also interesting in that a possible key is:
WALESRUGBVHQCDFIYKMNOPJTXZ
Approximately at least, I suspect the keyword is Wales Rugby.
@@57thorns I think the key is WALESRUGBYHQ followed by the unused letters in alphabetical order
@@SimonB43 Seem very likely.
Wow, not what id thought id see after work..
Awesome 🎉
I did this in bed the other day and it took me about an hour. I didn't get up to grab a pen though, so I'm quite happy with my time doing it all inside my head.
The cipher key for number 7 is WELSH RUGBY HQ
WALES, not WELSH. But well spotted. :)
AHHHHH so that was the clue for it. I ended up guessing "Millenium Stadium" based on the postcard picture being around Cardiff, and the landmark having at least 18 letters to it. Have been looking at it for a couple of days on my lunch break even though I'd solved it trying to figure out what the final clue was. Cheers!
@@edchapman6371 Actually, there were a few things you needed to spot. First, the words ‘perhaps reading’ being in capitals. Second, the fact they are the same length as the 2 words at the start of the cipher, suggesting the need to compare them and then use the result as a guide to work out the rest (classic substitution ciphers have the form ‘keyword’ followed by all other letters in order). Third, a number of words and phrases are cryptic crossword hints to look at the first letters of each word (primarily, leading, initially). The fact the keyword is WALESRUGBYHQ is more of a bonus. I actually did the exact same as you but then realised it didn’t have enough letters so guessed the actual answer. I’d missed the second clue so it was nice to be able to make a decent educated guess!!
We definitely got into Wales with number 7, they straight up spelt it out in Welsh language
Me too mate, me too
Not enough Ls
Anybody know what the pictures of the bee and the half-eaten doughnut and two dishes are there for? Is it another easter egg?
@@aarthur2803 it’s a reference to four of their other locations and what they are symbolic for - the doughnut is Cheltenham as their HQ there is shaped like one 🍩 , the bee is for their Manchester HQ as the bee is a known Mancunian symbol 🐝 , and the two satellite ones are for their Scarborough and Bude HQs and are satellites because those HQs conduct signal intelligence 📡
Thanks 😁
I think puzzle 6 is in the shape of Stonehenge
Not sure about the first one on #3, but the DLA one is Old MacDonald backwards
Edit: probably should’ve watched all the way through 😂
Do, Re, Mi (individually) backwards!
Bonus video for my birthday!!!!
Why does everyone know Harry potter and no one knows his dark materials 😢
Mm, I'll have to pull out my glasses for this one
I just turned 15, completed this in rather quick pace, however if you roughly look at the map then you can most likely guess the locations, all you have to do is match them to which animal
So to address a point made elsewhere in the comments, did the somewhat aged references to things from the Seventies like the Green Cross Code cause you any problems?
@@craftsmanwoodturner I’m 20 and solved it myself, the only bits I didn’t get were the football thing (I’m not a fan, nor is anyone else in my family) and bassoon because it just completely slipped my mind (embarrassing I know). I know the green cross code and what not through my parents, but I could see other people my age struggling more if their parents don’t talk to them in references like mine do, or don’t do as many quizzes where 70s knowledge is kinda required. Honestly it makes a lot of people my age feel a bit shut out from quizzes and such because we’re too young for half of it, whether it’s the local pub quiz or on the radio or television. I do wish the people writing these things would think to do quizzes inclusive of younger people more often.
@ surprisingly not, however I was a bit confused when it had red riding hood and black panther but black panther didn’t have a third option so I deciphered that one quite quickly
@@craftsmanwoodturner
Have you not read the Highway Code since the 1970s?
In the latest edition of the Highway Code (published 2022) rule 7 starts:
"7, *The Green Cross Code.* The advice given below on crossing the road is for all pedestrians. Children should be taught the Code and should not be allowed out alone until they can understand and use it properly..."
It's not a 70s thing, it's a totally current thing which unfortunately most people don't seem to know, or want to know.
My guess for Puzzle 3.7 is old MAC Donald Had a Farm but spelled backwards.
"Merry Christmas from GCHQ" or "GCHQ Locations Will Be United."
Simon and Mark had a farm... QLKGX
The CAM is part of OLD MAC DON ALD backwards...
The concept of a government intelligence agency putting out a christmas puzzle is almost wholesome. Imagine any other agency doing that "Try 8 days of cryptograms with the Mossad Hannukah Puzzle Challenge!" "Can you crack the CIA's Annual Thanksgiving Code?"
The Dutch Intelligence agency also does this, and this years came out today! It is much harder though, and there is even a kids version I don't think I would be able to solve :)
You are obviously not familiar with the Kryptos sculpture installed at the CIA haedquarters.
I was surprised to hear Mark pronounce "H" as "haitch".
What does the binary on the card say?
"seasons greetings"
Cam . He hates the inheritance tax .
35:47 you reversed the notes. Why not this, too? It's "old macdonald".
He actually did try reading it in reverse, on his initial solve attempt, but didn't see the answer.
Typewriter 😅
What a strange upload time - This is cool though
Old MacDonald and Do Re Mi are the pieces you misses immediately in 3.
At the end of the video he says it
Old MacDonald.... backwards
Can someone explain the substitution cipher part? I thought the subbed letters were supposed to be in a defined pattern, but I can't see how it's working
In a substitution cipher, each letter in alphabet is assigned to another letter bijectively (not necessarily in order; that would instead by a simple shift of letters or a Caesar Cipher).
So 'PERHAPS READING' which is capitalised as clue, maps directly onto the letters in the cipher below it (you can see E and R repeated as S and K, so you just need to then substitute all other instances of these letters in the remaining sentence (i.e. swap every S for an E etc).
I find copying into MS Word and using 'find and replace all' can be useful. But be careful as swapping in letters which already appear in the cipher might get confusing and you need to track which ones have been changed somehow. After the letters from the clue are subbed, the other incomplete words should start resembling obvious words which you can make reasonable guesses. In general these can be solved by frequency analysis, so for long enough messages, we can assume the most common occurrences are E, T etc.
The full cypher alphabet used for this puzzle is:
Cypher 》plain
A B
B I
C M
D N
E D
F O
G H
H K
I P
J Q
K R
L C
M S
N T
I U
P V
Q L
R F
S E
T W
U G
V X
W A
X Y
Y J
Z Z
But it is easier when encyphering to have the plain alphabet first; rearranging to give plain 》cypher:
A W
B A
C L
D E
E S
F R
G U
H G
I B
J Y
K H
L Q
M C
N D
O F
P I
Q J
R K
S M
T N
U O
V P
W T
X V
Y X
Z Z
so to encypher a message you look up the letter on the left and replace it by the letter on the right. To decipher you look it up on the right and place it by the letter on the left (rewriting the right in alphabetical order makes decypherment easier).
This uses a keyword phrase to start the encypher alphabet which contains no repeated letters and is then followed by the rest of the letters of the alphabet in order - your recipient knows the keyword and can reconstruct the cypher from it.
@@riggmeister
Frequency analysis is well known and measures can be taken to confound it (Gadsby by Ernest Wright would confound such analysis). A better measure, which requires more work, in solving simple substitution cyphers is analysis of diagrams - how letters touch other letters - in conjunction with frequency analysis: the way letters sit relative to other letters (and word ends) is very distinctive to every [written] language. To combat this analysis encypherment would encypher diagrams - every pair of letters is substituted by another pair of letters based on a table.
Another way to confound frequency analysis is to use multiple alphabets - ideally one per letter of the message. A mechanical device for such an arrangement was Enigma, but it did have flaws which allowed an edge into the encyphered messages.
Old McDonald
MacDonald. Not the hamburger guy.
United in protecting the Kingdom. Not referring to the Labour Party then. 😂😂😂
Well done for solving a puzzle designed for schoolchildren.
Calm down, you genius
Four years running I've completed these puzzles (each in under half-an-hour). Fun for kids, but hardly taxing.
Just a bit of fun. Merry Christmas 🎅🎄
The multiple rounds puzzle they made from several years ago (2015 I think) was solid.