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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

Please help me solve it and find the name...

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!

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  • $\begingroup$ Maybe she is "her"? $\endgroup$
    – newzad
    Dec 11, 2017 at 7:45
  • $\begingroup$ Using a=0, b=1, and taking all numbers mod 2, we get that your husband is clearly dating someone named W :P $\endgroup$
    – Quintec
    Dec 13, 2017 at 0:29
  • $\begingroup$ @thecoder16 not saying if you are right or wrong but you can consider posting a answer if like, even partial answers are welcome $\endgroup$
    – Preet
    Dec 13, 2017 at 4:24

4 Answers 4

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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.

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  • $\begingroup$ your very first step is correct, second could be right if you change a bit:) $\endgroup$
    – Preet
    Dec 19, 2017 at 4:16
  • $\begingroup$ the second step may be to convert 'a' to 0 and 'b' to 1, resulting 01000000011100000011 but still no idea what next $\endgroup$
    – athin
    Dec 19, 2017 at 4:21
  • $\begingroup$ 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 $\endgroup$
    – Preet
    Dec 19, 2017 at 4:23
  • $\begingroup$ Well Done!! correct:) $\endgroup$
    – Preet
    Dec 19, 2017 at 6:24
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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

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  • $\begingroup$ so why they are given hint. $\endgroup$
    – narasimha
    Dec 14, 2017 at 11:24
  • $\begingroup$ @Wizou, sorry its not the answer, binary conversion is necessary $\endgroup$
    – Preet
    Dec 15, 2017 at 0:12
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as per ASCII Code a=97, b=98 so we subtract the next number we get mobile number as Jordan country code 96-9790959196

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  • $\begingroup$ Nice try!! but not the correct way. Plz consider hint $\endgroup$
    – Preet
    Dec 13, 2017 at 6:10
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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.

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  • $\begingroup$ 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. $\endgroup$
    – Preet
    Dec 15, 2017 at 0:14

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