Course: Maths Puzzles: Cryptarithms, Symbologies and Secret Codes

We will be looking at symbologies in a minute, but perhaps you already have some questions? If so, you can discuss this with us in the discussion below!

Well done! Now let’s summarise this week…

We return to the course challenge! Decipher the following barcode: You might want to flip back to the barcode page for help… PS: Aliens are known to use the first …

UPC-A and EAN-13 are among the most used barcode systems. UPC-A is the primary barcode system for the United States, while EAN-13 is dominant in Europe. There is not that …

Before we take a look at checksums, I’d like to backtrack a bit and look at a special kind of serial number: ISBNs (International Standard Book Number). ISBNs Books can …

Great! – We’re well on our way now. Have you ever wondered whether you can literally ‘read’ barcodes. Go on! Mark this step as complete and click ‘next’ and we’ll …

It’s time again for the course challenge. Try and decipher the third line of the challenge: Hint: This might be binary, but it might also be Gray code. What do …

When we look at the binary numbers in order we see an interesting phenomenon. Each time we reach a power of 2, all the bits change! When advancing from 1 …

In modern times, once the “digital revolution” came along, there was a need for a new coding system which would be suitable for computers and other electrical-digital devices. The system …

OK – so we’ve got that done. Now let’s move on to modern times and look at the language of computers. Go on! Mark this step as complete when you …

It’s time again for the course challenge. Try and decipher the Roman numeral: _____ CXLIIDCCCLVII You can ask for hints in the discussion, but don’t give away the answer. That …

The Greeks used two number systems, one mainly for currency and everyday counting and a more sophisticated number system which was used by the learned. Strictly speaking there were many …

The ancient Romans had their own method of writing numbers. The symbols: I, V, X, L, C, D, M represented the numbers: 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 500, 1000. For …

The Rhind papyrus teaches us a lot about how the Egyptians thought about the different math operations. There wasn’t a simple known way to multiply numbers. In fact, multiplication was …