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My vacation just ended, and I'm at the airport headed back home! It was definitely an enjoyable trip, but it could also be described as, well, unusual.

I've got a more immediate problem though. I've kind of forgotten which gate my flight arrives at. The answer is probably somewhere in the grid, but I can't see it. Could you help me out?

LOFCSURFTCZLRNTVZFUUNRBTON
JZTZODUJRTSCJCBFNOFSYSVZCJ
RFBYMBVRMSOYYLNMYYJCDLRFZB

Clarification: Gates are identified by a letter followed by a number.

Hint: 1:

Two words in the exposition are precisely chosen to be relevant.

Hint 2:

No, not primes.

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  • $\begingroup$ When you say number, do you mean digit? What I mean to ask is, is H16 a valid answer? $\endgroup$
    – CodeNewbie
    Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 12:14
  • $\begingroup$ @CodeNewbie It is a valid answer, but not correct... $\endgroup$
    – ant11
    Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 15:38
  • $\begingroup$ Hey @ant11, I think we need some hints here~ $\endgroup$
    – Bailey M
    Commented Jul 14, 2015 at 20:23
  • $\begingroup$ @Bailey letters into unusual numbers $\endgroup$
    – ant11
    Commented Jul 14, 2015 at 21:38
  • $\begingroup$ 26 letters on a row. There are 26 letters in english alphabet. Am I on the right track? (cold or hot?) $\endgroup$
    – Jet
    Commented Sep 4, 2015 at 14:27

3 Answers 3

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Finally got it. The first important word, as we already knew, is "unusual", referring to unusual numbers. Since the hint says "not primes", we are interested in the sequence of not-prime unusual numbers, that goes like this:

6, 10, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 26, ...

These actually dictates

the valid letters in the grid by their number: F, J, N, O, T, U, V, Z

If we apply this knowledge to the grid, we get:

      O F     U   F T   Z     N T V Z F U U N     T O N
    J Z T Z O   U J   T     J     F N O F       V Z   J
      F         V       O       N       J         F Z

I tried this ages ago but it didn't seem useful at all,

until @icke mentioned the Braille idea. If each letter is a dot, in Braille this reads: 

   W H I T E K I N G P A W N

I guess this refers to

the most common chess opening, defined by the simple and ubiquitous move E4

and that's your gate.

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  • 1
    $\begingroup$ I think it might be talking about the white king's pawn starting square, which is E2. $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi ♦
    Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 11:02
  • $\begingroup$ The first hint says "Two words in the exposition are precisely chosen to be relevant." I see that you have used the word "unusual", What is the other word? $\endgroup$
    – Adhvaitha
    Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 11:03
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    $\begingroup$ @Deusovi, you are probably right, but I guess that makes little difference; let's see what the author says. I think the other relevant word is "see" (in "can't see it"), referring to Braille. $\endgroup$
    – Aioros
    Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 11:06
  • $\begingroup$ Congratulations, this is the correct solution! I realize the wording is ambiguous and could mean one of two squares. My intended solution was the one on the second row, but Aioros's answer is correct as well. $\endgroup$
    – ant11
    Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 20:20
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I'm gonna go with

E3

because

"can't see" were the words you were referring to in your hint. If you can't see and (according to your comment) hearing isn't the right way to figure it out either, that leaves touch as the only other means that makes sense to me. If I were to emboss the grid on a surface and then tried to run my hands over it, I would think that the Us would be easiest to feel (from the top). There are only 4 Us and they can be interpreted as 2 braille cells reading E and 3. (Alternatively 5 and C, but you wrote a gate was identified by a letter followed by a number.) I still feel like I'm missing something, because Us are not the only letters that you could feel that way, also Y and V, but I couldn't make any sense of those...

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  • $\begingroup$ Welcome to Puzzling.SE! I was thinking something to do with Braille as well, but that seems a little tenuous... $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi ♦
    Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 8:19
  • $\begingroup$ His clue said no prime. 3 is prime. $\endgroup$
    – Mekalikot
    Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 9:11
  • $\begingroup$ It said "not primes" which (to me) sounded like primes were not relevant in obtaining the number from the grid $\endgroup$
    – icke
    Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 9:26
  • $\begingroup$ Interesting concept, but this ignores the "letters into unusual numbers" hint too. $\endgroup$
    – Aioros
    Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 10:25
  • $\begingroup$ Ah, you're right. I missed that one in the comments. $\endgroup$
    – icke
    Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 11:37
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Hmm.. I have an idea...
The gates are "somewhere in the grid". So maybe it's written like O=0, S=5, etc. Then it becomes 

L0FC5URFTCZLRNTVZFUUNRBT0N
JZTZ0DUJRT5CJCBFN0F5Y5VZCJ
RFBYMBVRM50YYLNMYYJCDLRFZB
(If there are more substitutions, tell me)

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  • $\begingroup$ Sorry, this is not the correct path. Also, "somewhere in the grid" is more than 2 words :) $\endgroup$
    – ant11
    Commented Oct 23, 2015 at 3:34
  • $\begingroup$ Oh, :( I'll try again. $\endgroup$
    – user17008
    Commented Oct 23, 2015 at 19:43

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