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Here are four photos from Google satellite maps and one from Wikipedia (see note 1). These photos show a family related by strength and endurance. The goal of this puzzle is:

  1. to identify the proper name of the each of the five family members
  2. then to apply the book cipher method to identify the sixth member of this family
Hints:
  • understanding the common characteristic is important
  • there is no hidden information in the photos
  • there are no legumes in the answers
  • partial answers are OK

Note 1 - Photos of subject 3 are restricted by copyright so a photo of a model is shown below.

First three Second three

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1 Answer 1

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The proper names are:

1. Gateway Arch (in St.Louis)

2. United States Air Force Memorial (in Arlington, VA)

3. Atomium (in Brussels)

4. Cloud Gate (in Chicago)

5. The Kelpies (at The Helix in Scotland)

6. Unisphere (in Flushing Meadows, NY) - credit to Len for this one!

The common characteristic of these is that they are:

made out of stainless steel.

The book cipher is described as follows:

It encodes the name of subject 6 by using the names of the first 5 subjects. The first number X in parentheses represents the name of subject X, and the second number Y represents the Yth letter from the end of the name.

So we have:

* (4, -6) = the 6th letter from the end of "Cloud Gate" = U
* N
* (3, -3) = the 3rd letter from the end of "Atomium" = I
* (5, -1) = the 1st letter from the end of "The Kelpies" = S
* (5, -4) = the 4th letter from the end of "The Kelpies" = P
* (1, -1) = the 1st letter from the end of "Gateway Arch" = H
* (1, -8) = the 8th letter from the end of "Gateway Arch" = E
* (2, -4) = the 4th letter from the end of "United States Air Force Memorial" = R
* (2, -7) = the 7th letter from the end of "United States Air Force Memorial" = E

That spells out Unisphere.

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  • $\begingroup$ @Len I went down the wrong path trying to figure out the cipher. I thought the title might have something to do with it, and I found the phrase "Our honor is unstained" in a couple books. Also, I couldn't find The Kelpies in Google Maps, but I did find some photos showing they're supposed to be near water. Your photo doesn't show any water, so that's why I wasn't sure about that one. $\endgroup$
    – pacoverflow
    Feb 17, 2015 at 2:35
  • $\begingroup$ My apologies. I am learning there can be many different perspectives on how to solve a cipher and that they need to be very well defined. $\endgroup$
    – Len
    Feb 17, 2015 at 3:01
  • $\begingroup$ @Len No need to apologize, there was nothing wrong with your puzzle. I just made it more difficult than it should have been! $\endgroup$
    – pacoverflow
    Feb 17, 2015 at 5:25

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