Code Trivia Quiz

Answer: Enigma Code

The Enigma Machine was a cipher machine used by the Germans in WWII. The code was considered unbreakable by the Germans and when the British broke the code they wanted the Germans to believe that it had not been broken. Alan Turing was the mastermind behind the decoding of the machine.

The Enigma machine worked on a rotor system consisting of a keyboard, disks, spindle and a key press.

Answer: Caesar

The Caesar cipher or code, also known as the Caesar Shift Code or simply the Shift Code, is considered a simple encryption. The original letters of the word are either shifted up or down by a certain number. The most common shift is three letters up or down, for example "a" becomes "d" or "x".

Answer: Bacon

Francis Bacon was an Englishman of many talents including being a statesman, scientist, author and philosopher. The cipher attributed to Bacon requires replacing each letter with either five letters or a binary number.

Answer: Navajo

Although the Navajo Indians were not the first nor the only Native American code talkers, they were the most successful. Utilised extensively and successfully in WWII by the American Marines in the Pacific, the success of the Navajo Code was portrayed in the film "Windtalkers" starring Nicholas Cage.

Answer: Morse

Samuel Morse came up with this code by transmitting text using a series of recognisable tones that the receiver could translate. Based on the Latin alphabet and Arabian numerals Morse utilised a series of short and long tones for his code. Of course the most common Morse Code message for everyone is the call sign for "SOS".

Answer: Pigpen Code

A common cipher is the pigpen cipher which also has an association with the Masons and Freemasons, as well as Napoleon. The code is based on exchanging letters for symbols through a grid basis. The grid uses different symbols to represent a letter and each grid represents one letter which spells out the word.

Answer: Tap Code

The Tap Code was especially used by prisoners, and involved tapping a bar or other surface so the other prisoners could receive the message. The code is based on a grid of five by five grid. The grid consists of five rows and five columns. Each letter has two taps associated with it, the first tap indicates the row and the second tap indicates the column.

Answer: ROT 13

There are a number of "ROT" ciphers with the most commonly used one is "ROT 13". Simply put the letter is represented by the letter that is 13 letters after it. For example, "a" becomes "n".

Answer: Wig Wag Cipher

The Wig Wag code was used extensively in the America and is based on a flag system utilised in its Civil War. The system was considered easier due to one flag being used that was simply moved from the left or the right. At night the flag was replaced by a lantern, where the same principles of signalling was used.

Answer: ASCII

As computers can only understand numbers a system was developed that converted letters and symbols to numbers. The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is used to do it, it converts things such as "@", "%" and "a" etc into numbers that can be read by the computer.