Turn the Wheel
Read the puzzle
A cipher wheel has two rings of letters A to Z. The inner ring is turned so that inner A sits under outer K. Each code letter is found on the inner ring, and the real letter is the outer letter above it. The code is SBEKT. Which word is hidden in the code?
Which word is hidden in the code?
rain
CLOUD
Inner S, B, E, K, T sit under outer C, L, O, U, D.
How to solve it
Use the key to find the shift. Inner A sits under outer K, and K is 10 letters after A, so every real letter is 10 places after its code letter, wrapping from Z back to A.
Decode one letter at a time. Counting 10 on from S gives T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, A, B, C, so S becomes C. B plus 10 is L. E plus 10 is O. K plus 10 is U. T plus 10 runs past Z to D.
SBEKT reads CLOUD.
The common slip is shifting the wrong way, reading the inner letter below each code letter instead of the outer letter above it. That moves 10 places backward and gives nonsense: IRUAJ. Quick check: decoding should give a real word, and every letter moves by the same 10 steps.
