LE SS ON 1 PIGPEN CIPHER This is

LE SS ON 1 PIGPEN CIPHER • This is a substitution cipher • This was used a lot in the 18 th century by a secret society called the Freemasons • It was so well used by the Freemasons that it is often called the Freemasons Cipher • You might see some of these codes on the graves of Freemasons

Lesson 1 Use this to decode the message below: Now have a go at creating your own message.

LESSON 2 YOUR TURN TO MAKE YOUR OWN SET OF CARDS 1 1 1 The numbers at the top of the page represent cards and you can only use one at a time. So if I want to make the number 5, I would pick 1 of the 4 card, 0 of the 2 card and 1 of the 1 card because 4+1 =5. If I wanted to make 7, I would pick 1 of the 4 card, 1 of the 2 card and 1 of the 1 cards. Now fill in the rest of the sheet for numbers 1 - 31

LESSON 3 ONCE YOU TABLE IS COMPLETE: Your first card should look like this! 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 Now do the same for the other four columns, you will end up with 5 cards in total!

NOW IS THE TIME TO SHOW YOUR FAMILY THAT YOU HAVE SPECIAL MATHEMATICAL POWERS……. • Ask them to pick all of the cards that have their birth date on them. For example if they were born on the 18 th then pick all the cards with 18 on them. • Tell them not to tell anyone their number • Collect the cards they have chosen • You should be able to use the binary code that you have created to tell them their birthday is……. • It doesn’t have to be your birth date, you can pick any number between 1 and 31.

OK IT’S NOT REALLY MAGIC……… • The ‘magic’ birthday cards are made using binary numbers, which are a type of code that you have now created, well done! • These are numbers that are used to program computers • A computer cannot remember millions of different numbers but it can remember a series of 1 s and 0 s. • For example in binary the number 9 is 1001