Cryptography 2

This week we looked further into our investigation of cryptography. We used a couple of exercises on the Khan Academy site to experiment with the Caesar Cypher and to see what kind of "fingerprint" we would leave if we were using it. Our fingerprint was much less noticeable when we used the Polyalphabetic Cipher.
Then we watched a video about the One Time Pad - which is effective for two reasons. 1. Its randomness 2. Its length / lack of repetition.
Finally, the last video answered the question "What is the difference between a coin flip and a blind guess?". Hunter predicted its answer very well!

Here are the questions we discussed today
1. What is the Caesar Cipher?
2. Why do you think it took a long time (800 years) before it was easily deciphered?
3. What do you notice on the frequency explorer?
4. Why is it called a "fingerprint"?
5. What makes the One Time Pad so effective?

Mrs Armstrong's frustrations this week: Why can't we say that the letter "e" is "winning"?!! Or that the letter "z" is "not very popular"?!!

AND... we have a new name! "Explore It".
Parent meeting scheduled for next Thursday March 20 at 5.30 in the Staffroom.