One of IAP's most exciting activities is the annual Mystery Hunt. In short, Mystery Hunt is a weekend long competition at MIT where students and others team up to solve lots of puzzles, with the ultimate goal of finding a coin hidden somewhere on campus. For a more in-depth description, you should check out these longer pieces from the Boston Globe, Games Magazine, Wikipedia, and NPR's This American Life.
Lots of MIT students, including bloggers, will be participating in the hunt, which begins at noon in Lobby 7. Paul and I will be on Smallish Momenta (an anagram of "Simmons Hall Team;" also, a likely description of our progress this weekend); Snively will be on Death From Above; and I'd assume Bryan will be on Too Much Clue.
To give you a flavor of the Hunt, I decided I'd post here four previous Mystery Hunt puzzles: a (relatively) easy one, a fun one, a musical one, and a don't-drink-milk-while-watching-or-you-might-snarf one. Like many Mystery Hunt puzzles, these come with no instructions, no hints, no introduction. Each does, however, come with a title.
182.2 Smoots
On one side, it says "NCIL SACOEBBD FM TH RDC AEUEF DDQNCQL AM GANKDRED HQ RJ UFEG". On the other side, it says "ZMIZ SIYYEZDF LY TV VLG MMWEV TFWZGSZ AY IAVYNTYX JU VT YJYS".
Cookie Monster
An Ax To Grind
LOGS:
ACK ADE AIN AND AOB
APS ARM COM DEV DLO
DSS EMB ENS EPS ERR
ESU ETE FOR FOR GCA
HEA HIN HOL IAR IBE
ILB IMY ION IPA ITA
ITT LCA LEM LIE LIF
LIK LLE LLS LYN MIA
MPA NAT NAT NOV NRH
NSY NTL NXB OBL ODY
OHE OID ORN OTE PAR
PIR RAN RGE ROI RON
RWA SHA SME SON TAB
TAI THE THY TSE ULL
UMB VED VEI VEN VEN
WHI YGU YOH YTO YWE
Wipe the Floor with Him!!
I can tell you that the answers (in order) will be a nine-letter word, a six-letter word, a two-word phrase, and a four-letter word. Good luck, have fun, don't cheat, and don't spoil the fun too much!
Comments (Closed after 30 days to reduce spam)
I'll post some puzzles on my blog (The hyperlink of my name below this comment) so people can help out. It's on! DFA FTW!
Posted by: Snively on January 18, 2008
Posted by: Anon D on January 18, 2008
Posted by: Tanmay on January 18, 2008
Posted by: Taylor on January 18, 2008
Posted by: Lauren '12 on January 18, 2008
Now, the first puzzle has something to do with a thing that is 182.2 Smoots long. What it is, I can't tell.
Hey, but I was solving the Monster puzzle! Got distracted.
Posted by: Tanmay on January 18, 2008
182.2 Smoots. Harvard Bridge is 364.4 Smoots long.
364.4 / 2 = 182.2 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Tanmay on January 18, 2008
Still, Hella Minerals shall win the day!
Posted by: Adam M. on January 18, 2008
Posted by: 0 on January 18, 2008
Of course, you will come to know the answers after quite sometime now and not have- "spoil the fun too much!" , but I must say this smoot puzzle is very much solvable. I have got 2 strong clues and one weak.
The monster will have to wait.
Posted by: Tanmay on January 18, 2008
SO that has to help with deciphering the letters.
So the letter strings have a similar number of alphabets in their sequence:
NCIL SACOEBBD FM TH RDC AEUEF DDQNCQL AM GANKDRED
ZMIZ SIYYEZDF LY TV VLG MMWEV TFWZGSZ AY IAVYNTYX
HQ RJ UFEG
JU VT YJYS
hmm so if we number the letters[A=1, B=2, C=3.....) N will be 14 and Z 26. so the median would be (14+ 26)/2 which is 20. so 20 is T! aah
Now to do that for everything *go grabs calculator*
T (3+13/2) = 8 = H etc..
yay! I've got something
THIS SENTENCE IS TO THE GIVEN LETTERS AS HARRISON IS TO WHOM
huh? now what?
Posted by: Agneta on January 18, 2008
Posted by: Piper on January 18, 2008
Posted by: Kevin X on January 18, 2008
Posted by: Laura on January 18, 2008
As Agneta said: this sentence is to the letters as Harrison is to whom??
Letters of Harrison, the mathematician? Harrison Ford? There are ton's of Harrisons in the world..Gosh!It was easy?
Posted by: Libin Daniel on January 18, 2008
Posted by: Libin Daniel on January 18, 2008
Posted by: Libin Daniel on January 18, 2008
Benjamin Harrison was between Grover Cleveland's 2 non-consecutive terms as President.
Posted by: Ethan on January 18, 2008
How does that explain the relation of a sentence to the letters?
Posted by: Libin Daniel on January 18, 2008
Posted by: Ethan on January 18, 2008
Posted by: Sumaiya on January 18, 2008
Posted by: Anion on January 18, 2008
The first word in both strings is of 4 letters, second is of 8 letters and so on.The sequence is-
4 8 2 2 3 5 7 2 8 2 2 4
There is no encryption. Try typing the strings yourself. You'll find that the writer was writing these randomly!
I have an answer; but I won't tell until there is an official version...
Posted by: Tanmay on January 18, 2008
Posted by: Tanmay on January 18, 2008
Posted by: Tanmay on January 18, 2008
well
now onto the cookie monster. Well I'm wondering if it has to do anything with the cookie program that Seth Stein (former MIT student) developed...
Posted by: Agneta on January 18, 2008
Posted by: Tanmay on January 19, 2008
Posted by: 0 on January 19, 2008
Posted by: Libin Daniel on January 19, 2008
It is called cookie monster, so maybe it is a monster missing his right eye?
Posted by: april on January 19, 2008
Posted by: MMM on January 19, 2008
Posted by: Agneta on January 19, 2008
In the second pic
the 1st cookie I can't see any other = 0
second one i see 3
third one i see 9
4th one I see 4
5th one 5
6th one 6
7th one 8
8th one 10
9th one 3
10th cookie 3
now...?
Posted by: Agneta on January 20, 2008
well for the TREE.. we should probably start by the most obvious way.. figuring out wat songs are there on the slip.. i recognized bulls on parade (rage against the Machine) and Led zeppelin's Stairway to heaven. others i d'no.
and the only thing tht struck me abt the bwf one is that the moves have different names than their originals.. the rest of the stuff doesn't make much sense.. anyone else got any leads?
Posted by: Yash.. on January 20, 2008
Posted by: Yash.. on January 20, 2008
Posted by: Yash.. on January 20, 2008
? (recognize, but can't remember), ? (same), ? (never heard), Stairway to Heaven, Seven Nation Army, Hotel California, Smells Like Teen Spirit, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, ? (that is the worst sounding bass I've ever heard), Bohemian Rhapsody, Sympathy for the Devil, Comfortably Numb, ? (I know I've heard it, sounds like Soundgarden, Audioslave, STP), Bulls on Parade
Posted by: JohnJimJoeBob on January 20, 2008
2. november rain - guns n' roses (end portion of song), 3. paranoid android - radiohead (I think so at least)
The first and last ones you didn't have I know but I can't place them either! The other one left, no clue. Hope that helps though.
Posted by: DHowdy on January 20, 2008
Posted by: Sondy on January 20, 2008
1-0
2-4
3-9
4-4
5-5
6-5
7-6
8-10
9-3
10-3
55 cookies in total
Posted by: alexP on January 20, 2008
Posted by: alexP on January 20, 2008
No jokes. I can't believe I counted them wrong. Now I feel like a 1st grader. haha I counted them @ like 12:30 haha...I must have been super tired. but thankssssss now let's see...
what if we convert the numbers to letters
0
D
I
D
E
E
F
J
C
C
hmmmm..
Posted by: Agneta on January 20, 2008
for the cookie one,
I think there is actually one of the 1st one in the second picture. Look on the upper right of the hair, you see the cookie with the crown
ADI DE EFJCC -->
DIA De EFJCCHey Alex and Agneta
for the cookie one,
I think there is actually one of the 1st one in the second picture. Look on the upper right of the hair, you see the cookie with the crown
ADI DE EFJCC -->
DIA De EFJCC<-- no word
Day of ...
Random guess
Posted by: Nan on January 20, 2008
so let's see who is a dessert connoisseur.
let's try and find the types of cookies? and then see of their names send a message.
hmm 9 is an oreo!
Posted by: Agneta on January 20, 2008
Posted by: ana on January 20, 2008
here's the pic
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorilyn/169827804/
Posted by: Agneta on January 20, 2008
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/Fig_newton.jpg/800px-Fig_newton.jpg
Posted by: Agneta on January 20, 2008
http://www.waresdirect.com/product/WDI-KEB21771-DT.JPG
Posted by: Agneta on January 20, 2008
But why would the queen be converted into a pawn?
Also, cookie monster is the name of a Sesame Street character and some kind of 70's computer virus.
http://www.answers.com/cookie+monster?cat=technology
Can't make any connection though.
Posted by: alexP on January 21, 2008
Posted by: 0 on January 21, 2008
This would be the third type of cookie. It's called Lorna Doone Shortbread cookie.
A little recap:
1 - Chessmen - 0
2 - ? - 4
3 - Lorna Doone Shortbread Cookie - 9
4 - ? - 4
5 - Keebler's fudge shoppe - 5
6 - Newtons(it's actually Fig Newtons) - 5
7 - pink hippo cookie??? - 6
8 - ? - 10
9 - Oreo - 3
10- ? - 3
Posted by: alexP on January 21, 2008
Finally, all the materials have been accepted.
Thank you so very much.
I am not gonna be creative this time,lol.
Thank you^( No. of times I had visited mymit.edu)
Posted by: Libin Daniel on January 21, 2008
Posted by: JohnJimJoeBob on January 21, 2008
Posted by: JohnJimJoeBob on January 21, 2008
2 milano 4
3 lorna doone shortbread cookie
4 half dipped tahiti
5 fudge shoppe
6 fig newtons
7 frosted animal
8 nutter butters
9 oreos
10 geneva
fudge shoppe, frosten animal = keebler
oreos, fig newtons, lorna doone, nutter butters = nabisco
tahiti, milano, geneva, chessmen = pepperidge farm
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2005-04-15-cookies-cover_x.htm
Posted by: 0 on January 21, 2008
Chessmen - Pepperidge Farm - 1
Milano - Pepperidge Farm - 4
Lorna Doone - Nabisco - 9
Tahiti (chocolate dipped) - Pepperidge Farm - 4
Fudge Stripes - Keebler - 5
Fig Newtons - Nabisco - 5
Frosted Animal Cookies - Keebler - 11
Nutter Butter - Nabisco - 10
Oreo - Nabisco - 3
Geneva - Pepperidge Farm - 3
Posted by: 0 on January 21, 2008
it took some tym.. but thers something wrong..
see.. i selected a letter in the names of the cookies based on the no. of cookies present acc' to the last post..
this gives u a complete sentence, but thers some prob in the sentence.. u guys will probably figure it out.. but is tht the way to do it.. bcoz u're getting an answer, but by assuming tht some of the names are not ryt... nd thnx for the cookie names..
Posted by: Yash.. on January 22, 2008
canieemten.. but tht should obv be can Be eAten i think.. and the answer will b edible (6 letters).. or ive done it rong.. i dno.. anyone see anyother answer..
Posted by: Yash.. on January 22, 2008
Posted by: Lauren S. on January 23, 2008
2nd to last is soundgarden black hole son
hope that helps
Posted by: 0 on February 14, 2008
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