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Me and a friend are trying to solve a series of puzzles, and this is the last one I need to solve and I'm stumped. It's a Christmas themed puzzle titled 'bLitZEN'. The only hints given are that the title is important and BIT=1011000.

The puzzle reads:

BLT - BIT

IE

BEN - LIZ

IN - TEN

LIEN - LIE

IT - (EN + ZEN)

ZN

When I first saw it, I assumed it used ASCII but that's not giving me anything. I don't know anything about binary, so I thought that maybe it might be binary. But I can't figure out how BIT = 1011000 at all, and I can't seem to use that alone to solve the puzzle. Typically, each line gives you a single letter, where each line's letter forms a random word. It's part of a series, so that's what the others were like.

Let me know if you can come up with anything. Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.

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2 Answers 2

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BIT = 1011000 and the mathematical equations makes this look a lot like binary is involved. Combine that with the hint that the title is important, and we can work out where BIT=1011000 comes from:

Finding the letters BIT in the title gives b-it--- ... the same pattern as 1011000

Knowing that, we can then convert all of the other equations to binary:

11001000 - 1011000, 10010, 1000011 - 110100, 10001 - 1011, 110011 - 110010, 11000 - (11 + 111), 101

Solve those, and we get a list of numbers:

16 18 15 6 1 14 5

Numbers <= 26 can be converted to letters by counting through the alphabet, giving us:

PROFANE

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    $\begingroup$ How is your solution Christmas themed? $\endgroup$
    – Michael McGriff
    Commented Dec 26, 2014 at 15:43
  • $\begingroup$ @MichaelMcGriff The question only stated that the puzzle was Christmas themed. "Typically, each line gives you a single letter, where each line's letter forms a random word." $\endgroup$
    – Otaia
    Commented Dec 26, 2014 at 18:36
  • $\begingroup$ @Otaia I read that to mean the answer would be Christmas themed as well. We'll just have to wait and see if/when an answer gets accepted. Though I also read into the question that the OP doesn't know the answer... $\endgroup$
    – Michael McGriff
    Commented Dec 26, 2014 at 18:40
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As Toby explained

1011000 is the bit wise or binary representation of curresponding letters (here for the clue BIT) present in the title.

Following the same rule we get

(1100100-1011000) (10010) (1000011-110100) (10001-1011) (110011-110010) (11000-(11+111)) (11000-1010) (101)

Which gives

1100, 10010, 1111, 110, 1, 1110, 101 => 12, 18, 15, 6, 1, 14, 5

Considering these are the numerical representation of alphabets we get

L, R, O, F, A, N, E

I assume this is an anagram. On further research I understood its the anagram of

FAR NOEL (Noel means Christmas or birth of Christ)

Which is definitely Christmas related and referring to the birth of Jesus Christ for the three wise men from far. I also suspect it may related to a Christmas carol that I have heard a long ago.

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  • $\begingroup$ Your first one I think is wrong, 1100100 would equate to BLZ and not BLT. Also Noel is french for christmas, but far doesn't say anything. $\endgroup$
    – Lyrion
    Commented Dec 30, 2014 at 12:26

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