Gayoung Moon & Sheena Chen

Pre-Calculus AP

Cryptography

Objective: decode the secret messages provided by a group of two people using inverse matrix
of the coding matrix given.

Materials used: TI-89, Microsoft Word, and table 1 of “Enigma”.

Code provided:

[214 157 125 228]

[202 176 121 193]

[219 157 155 231]

[173 103 101 225]

Codifying matrix provided:

2 1 2 3
3 4 2 1
[ ] =A
3 2 1 4
3 1 2 4

Process:

1. Find A^(-1)
2. Multiply given code with A^(-1)
3. Decipher the codes resulting from process #2.

Since AX=B is the same as A^ (-1) B=X, to decode messages, we need to find the inverse of A.
Thus, we find:
 −7/4 1/4 −1/2 7/4
3/4 1/12 1/2 −13/12
[ ] = A-1
3/4 1/12 −1/2 −1/12
3/4 −1/4 1/2 −3/4

Then we multiply each matrix of the code provided with A ^ (-1) to get our decoded message :

−7/4 1/4 −1/2 7/4

3/4 1/12 1/2 −13/12
[214 157 125 228]*[ ]= [8 20 23 23]
3/4 1/12 −1/2 −1/12
3/4 −1/4 1/2 −3/4

−7/4 1/4 −1/2 7/4

3/4 1/12 1/2 −13/12
[202 176 121 193]*[ ]= [14 27 23 8]
3/4 1/12 −1/2 −1/12
3/4 −1/4 1/2 −3/4

−7/4 1/4 −1/2 7/4

3/4 1/12 1/2 −13/12
[219 157 155 231]*[ ]= [24 23 7 27]
3/4 1/12 −1/2 −1/12
3/4 −1/4 1/2 −3/4

−7/4 1/4 −1/2 7/4

3/4 1/12 1/2 −13/12
[173 103 101 225]*[ ]= [19 4 27 14]
3/4 1/12 −1/2 −1/12
3/4 −1/4 1/2 −3/4

Results:

The matrices obtained are:

[8 20 23 23]

[14 27 23 8]

[24 23 7 27]

[19 4 27 14]

Using the table provided, we find what the secret message is:

SHEENAESDETAIWAN, simplified, Sheena es de Taiwán.

Conclusion:
The most basic tools needed for decodification are a table that provides what each letter’s
number is, the codifying matrix, and, preferably, a calculator able to perform matrix operations.
The law of inverse matrices is the most basic law used in Cryptography, which is in what every
other complicated code system relies on.