K3 DYAHR Curiosity
Monday, 26. October 2009, 00:40:42
I remember how some people mentioned that the misspelled words in Kryptos form a Fibonacci sequence.
IQLUSION
GRUUND
DESPARATLY
UNDERGRUUND
2,3,5,8
While we can find plenty of misspelling in the clues for positions 2 and 3, there is only one word that is misspelled in the fifth position. Same thing for the eighth position. Those words are DESPARATLY and UNDERGRUUND respectively. Even the other positions have multiple candidates. DIGETAL has a misspelling in the fourth character and I mentioned how I believed RETNNA was a misspelling of RETINA. So I'm thinking the Fibonacci sequence is meant to stand out. It's a clue that should strike us as odd.
How does this relate to DYAHR? I noticed a Fibonacci sequence here too, but backwards. If we take the whole sequence from the beginning (or rather the END), we get ENDYAHR. Let's reverse it.
RHAYDNE
Now do you see the pattern? The R is 1 character. H is 1 character. AY is 2. DNE is 3.
1,1,2,3
That's the true beginning of a Fibonacci sequence (unless you want to start at 0).
1+1=2
2+1=3
However, we can't continue since we're at the END. This is when I saw on wikipedia that the Fibonacci sequence can actually start with negative numbers. Let's put the original sequence back in order.
ENDYAHR
3, 2, 1, 1
Here's the clever part. What if the raised letters are there just to differentiate from the negative numbers at the beginning of the sequence? Like so.
-3, 2, -1, 1
(-3)+2 = -1
2+(-1) = 1
Continuing on...
(-1)+1 = 0
1+0 = 1
0+1 = 1
1+1 = 2
1+2 = 3
2+3 = 5
3+5 = 8
And we have our regular Fibonacci sequence. It would start at the very next character after DYAHR. Taking K3 and extracting groups containing as many letters as each item in the Fibonacci sequence, you get this.
END
YA
H
R
- (0)
O
H
NL
SRH
EOCPT
EOIBIDYS
...
I won't list the whole thing. The groups get quite large rather quickly. Extracting the first letter of each group, we get the following.
EYHROHNSEEHLETTAZ
The beginning doesn't make much sense. But the last part says SEE H LETTAZ. H is the 8th letter. Could mean SEE 8 LETTERS using A-Z normal alphabet. Perhaps an indication to use the surrounding tableau alphabet in some fashion. Remember that this is a part of the tableau that has never been used (unless one accepts that it's only there as a clue for the straddling checkerboard).
What of the earlier letters in the sequence? EYH almost looks like EYE or I. Could it be the proverbial candle? The letter H is also specifically pointed out. Maybe this is the clue meant by SEE H LETTAZ. In any case, we get EYRON or rather IRON when we remove the H's. This is element 26, a link to AZ which has 26 letters. Is there something in the sculpture made of iron? The lodestone made of Magnetite. Magnetite has Fe3O4. So it has three Iron and four Oxygen atoms in each molecule. This could be a link to the compass rose since Magnetite was used in early compasses.
I just checked wikipedia and it says that you can also write Magnetite as FeO·Fe2O3. Could be a coincidence, but look at the amount of atoms. 1, 1, 2, 3. That's a Fibonacci sequence.
There is one last thing to note about these letters. The last Z is found within K4. In fact, the group begins with a double Z. There are 51 letters remaining in the last group when we reach the end of K4. Not sure if that means anything. What's odd about it is that I did not count the '?' as part of the previous group. If I include it as part of the ciphertext, then the last letter is still Z because of the double letters. However, this time there are only 50 characters left. A nice round number.
If we do have a reference to the lodestone, then we know it sits atop the word POSITION (covering part of the S). The full Morse code reads T IS YOUR POSITION. T is the 20th letter. 20 letters from the Z is a T leaving 30 letters at the end of K4. And there are indeed 30 letters in the AZ alphabet in the tableau.
Actually, there's one more thing I noticed just now. The characters that begin the official positive Fibonacci sequence after DYAHR are OHN representing numbers 1, 1 and 2. Just before the '?' in K4, we have OHW. The W is different, but OH is identical. Could this be a clue that K4 begins at OHW instead of OBKR? If so, this would make exactly 100 characters. The Z could indicate how K4 is actually split in two parts of 50 characters each that are perhaps meant to be put back together somehow.
IQLUSION
GRUUND
DESPARATLY
UNDERGRUUND
2,3,5,8
While we can find plenty of misspelling in the clues for positions 2 and 3, there is only one word that is misspelled in the fifth position. Same thing for the eighth position. Those words are DESPARATLY and UNDERGRUUND respectively. Even the other positions have multiple candidates. DIGETAL has a misspelling in the fourth character and I mentioned how I believed RETNNA was a misspelling of RETINA. So I'm thinking the Fibonacci sequence is meant to stand out. It's a clue that should strike us as odd.
How does this relate to DYAHR? I noticed a Fibonacci sequence here too, but backwards. If we take the whole sequence from the beginning (or rather the END), we get ENDYAHR. Let's reverse it.
RHAYDNE
Now do you see the pattern? The R is 1 character. H is 1 character. AY is 2. DNE is 3.
1,1,2,3
That's the true beginning of a Fibonacci sequence (unless you want to start at 0).
1+1=2
2+1=3
However, we can't continue since we're at the END. This is when I saw on wikipedia that the Fibonacci sequence can actually start with negative numbers. Let's put the original sequence back in order.
ENDYAHR
3, 2, 1, 1
Here's the clever part. What if the raised letters are there just to differentiate from the negative numbers at the beginning of the sequence? Like so.
-3, 2, -1, 1
(-3)+2 = -1
2+(-1) = 1
Continuing on...
(-1)+1 = 0
1+0 = 1
0+1 = 1
1+1 = 2
1+2 = 3
2+3 = 5
3+5 = 8
And we have our regular Fibonacci sequence. It would start at the very next character after DYAHR. Taking K3 and extracting groups containing as many letters as each item in the Fibonacci sequence, you get this.
END
YA
H
R
- (0)
O
H
NL
SRH
EOCPT
EOIBIDYS
...
I won't list the whole thing. The groups get quite large rather quickly. Extracting the first letter of each group, we get the following.
EYHROHNSEEHLETTAZ
The beginning doesn't make much sense. But the last part says SEE H LETTAZ. H is the 8th letter. Could mean SEE 8 LETTERS using A-Z normal alphabet. Perhaps an indication to use the surrounding tableau alphabet in some fashion. Remember that this is a part of the tableau that has never been used (unless one accepts that it's only there as a clue for the straddling checkerboard).
What of the earlier letters in the sequence? EYH almost looks like EYE or I. Could it be the proverbial candle? The letter H is also specifically pointed out. Maybe this is the clue meant by SEE H LETTAZ. In any case, we get EYRON or rather IRON when we remove the H's. This is element 26, a link to AZ which has 26 letters. Is there something in the sculpture made of iron? The lodestone made of Magnetite. Magnetite has Fe3O4. So it has three Iron and four Oxygen atoms in each molecule. This could be a link to the compass rose since Magnetite was used in early compasses.
I just checked wikipedia and it says that you can also write Magnetite as FeO·Fe2O3. Could be a coincidence, but look at the amount of atoms. 1, 1, 2, 3. That's a Fibonacci sequence.
There is one last thing to note about these letters. The last Z is found within K4. In fact, the group begins with a double Z. There are 51 letters remaining in the last group when we reach the end of K4. Not sure if that means anything. What's odd about it is that I did not count the '?' as part of the previous group. If I include it as part of the ciphertext, then the last letter is still Z because of the double letters. However, this time there are only 50 characters left. A nice round number.
If we do have a reference to the lodestone, then we know it sits atop the word POSITION (covering part of the S). The full Morse code reads T IS YOUR POSITION. T is the 20th letter. 20 letters from the Z is a T leaving 30 letters at the end of K4. And there are indeed 30 letters in the AZ alphabet in the tableau.
Actually, there's one more thing I noticed just now. The characters that begin the official positive Fibonacci sequence after DYAHR are OHN representing numbers 1, 1 and 2. Just before the '?' in K4, we have OHW. The W is different, but OH is identical. Could this be a clue that K4 begins at OHW instead of OBKR? If so, this would make exactly 100 characters. The Z could indicate how K4 is actually split in two parts of 50 characters each that are perhaps meant to be put back together somehow.
WIDGETIZE
Anonymous # 28. October 2009, 19:11
This is one of the better ideas I've heard in quite some time. I'd like to try different Fibonacci attacks when I get a little time.
KrazyKryptos # 29. October 2009, 14:11
And I want everyone to know I listed all the coincidences I could find and should not deter from only using the parts that seem logical and consistent to anyone trying to solve K4.
Since we're on the topic of coincidences, Z is the END of the alphabet as well as being the end of the extracted letters from the Fib series.
Anonymous # 23. November 2009, 18:55
The character positions of the misspelled words have a positional meaning that must be used later on when K4 is cracked open. Furthermore it must be noted that in K3 the misspelled character position appears twice, once when the text is in its encrypted form and the second when it is transformed (i.e. decrypted). As such 5 positions are to be noted and each of the letters have a significance in understanding their use. The significance of dYAhR is related to the way that the misspelled characters positions are placed. Within K4, Fibonacci is referrenced to make something relevant on how to proceed.