# Find the Girlfriend

Over the past few weeks, I've had a strong feeling that my husband has been secretly dating someone, but I don't know who she is. I asked one of his close friends about it but instead of telling her name he gave me a piece of paper. I think it's a puzzle and I need to solve it to find that girl.

The text written on the paper is:

a1b1a7b3a6b2

HINT 1:

Requires Binary conversions

HINT 2:

Requires Binary conversion in 2nd or 3rd step, not in very 1st.

HINT 3:

thecoder16 didn't post the answer but you can proceed with his idea, the very first step:) i.e. convert letter to number and repeat:P

HINT 4:

I got to know that she is also a Puzzling User!

• Maybe she is "her"? – newzad Dec 11 '17 at 7:45
• Using a=0, b=1, and taking all numbers mod 2, we get that your husband is clearly dating someone named W :P – Quintec Dec 13 '17 at 0:29
• @thecoder16 not saying if you are right or wrong but you can consider posting a answer if like, even partial answers are welcome – Preet Dec 13 '17 at 4:24

## I think I got it now

We have a1b1a7b3a6b2.

The first step is

the letter should be repeated by its following number resulting abaaaaaaabbbaaaaaabb.

The next one is

converting 'a' to 0 and 'b' to 1, we got a binary string 01000000011100000011.

Formatting it nice we got

0100 0000 0111 0000 0011 which if we convert them to decimal number we will get 40703.

Finally,

that means https://puzzling.stackexchange.com/users/40703 which is indeed the author itself, Preet.

• your very first step is correct, second could be right if you change a bit:) – Preet Dec 19 '17 at 4:16
• the second step may be to convert 'a' to 0 and 'b' to 1, resulting 01000000011100000011 but still no idea what next – athin Dec 19 '17 at 4:21
• yes, now you got the correct binary string, now you are two step away from name so you will not get a name directly from it:) consider all hints – Preet Dec 19 '17 at 4:23
• Well Done!! correct:) – Preet Dec 19 '17 at 6:24

I doubt I'm right, but with

a=Consonant and b=Vowel and the number following it being the rank among the Consonants/Vowels in the alphabet

That would give

Bajihe

• so why they are given hint. – narasimha Dec 14 '17 at 11:24
• @Wizou, sorry its not the answer, binary conversion is necessary – Preet Dec 15 '17 at 0:12

as per ASCII Code a=97, b=98 so we subtract the next number we get mobile number as Jordan country code 96-9790959196

• Nice try!! but not the correct way. Plz consider hint – Preet Dec 13 '17 at 6:10

We have the data: a1 b1 a7 b3 a6 b2

And I came out with this conversion:
a - 0001
b - 0001
a - 0111
b - 0011
a - 0110
b - 0010

Combining all the pairs of binary numbers, I got this:
00010001 01110011 01100010

I couldn't think further from this, as converting this to Hex and finding a letter for name created dangerous names, so I just thought this (illogical) way of solving:
The first number has 2 1's, so the total is 2. = "B"
The second number has 5 1's, so the total is 5 = "E"
The third number has 3 1's, so the total is 3 = "C"

So according to me, the name should be BEC or BECK.

• Good try I must say, but you gone wrong on very first step otherwise you could find solution. HINT: Binary conversion needed in 2nd or 3rd step(depends if you consider it 2nd or 3rd) not in first. – Preet Dec 15 '17 at 0:14