A famous artist is hiding within the following sequence: can you find it?
$E-12-ACH-94-VERY-21-HE-1-E-11-F-2-ERY-721-ND-61-O-8$
Is it possible to write down:
Camille Saint-Saëns
?
Hint 15th May 20
Artist's last name is 9 letters length
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1 Answer
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I'm fairly sure the answer is:
BEETHOVEN. Each of the letter/number pairs seems to be all but the first letter of a word paired with its frequency in the English language. I assume this is from a reference, but I was not able to find one that matched exactly. Anyway, by adding in the first letter, one would get: (B)E - 12 - (E)ACH - 94 - (E)VERY - 21 - (T)HE - 1 - (H)E - 11 - (O)F - 2 - (V)ERY - 721 - (E)ND - 61 - (N)O - 8
Update:
OK, I found it. The reference used is the webpage The Most Common Words In English. The numbers are not the position in the list, but rather the position in the list with the digits reversed. When the actual position ends in 0 (for example, EVERY is at position 120), the leading zero is dropped. And no, Camille Saint-Saëns cannot be written this way, as no word on the list starts with ë. Indeed, since the diaeresis is used in English for the second letter in a vowel pair, I'm fairly sure it cannot appear first in any English word.
answered May 15, 2020 at 0:56
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$\begingroup$ Nice spotted! You are halfway trough the cipher! Keep looking for the numbers, you are on the right way :) Could you write down Camille Saint-Saëns? $\endgroup$– JKHACommented May 15, 2020 at 2:54
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