Cryptograms in popular culture are encrypted phrases with simple,
monoalphabetic substitution. Simply put, this means that in the cryptogram (topic: education)
CUI DFC CF ARJS R ZFFV CMYS. CAMB MB BPOOFBSV CF NS SVPQRCMFDRE.
-- QARUESB BQAPEL
where ever there is an 'E' it refers to the same leter. Furthermore, a letter may never represent itself in its encrypted form.
The first step in solving a cryptogram is to identify either 'a' or 'i'. In the above cryptogram, R is either 'a' or 'i' because they are the only word that is composed of a single character in the english language.
To help make the decision as to R being 'a' or 'i', we need to look at other occurances of R in the cryptogram. SVPQRCMFDRE is a wonderful word in that it is long and thus likely to be rather unique. A quick (computer assisted) search shows that there are three words that have this form with R as a: educational, icosahedral, and Pythagorean. There are no words that exist in this form with R as 'i'.
It is almost guarnteed that F is a vowel - there are very few words (9) that VCCV. Taking this into consideration, in SVPQaCMFDaE, of the three words listed above, only 'educational' fits with F as 'o'.
At this point, BuOOoBed is a prime canidate for pattern matching, and we are fortunate to have it be a single match to the word supposed.
Knowing this, almost the entire cryptogram is solved:
stnlo i puc e d
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
tUI not to AaJe a Zood tiYe. tAis is supposed toNe educational.
-- cAaUles scAulL
Of the remaining unmatched letters, we have:
4 A
2 U
2 B
The remaining umattached letters in order of frequency are:
rahfmygwvbxkqjz
It is likely that AUB somehow map into rah, the question is how. 'H' is very likely to follow the letter 'T', especialy at the begining of words. Is 'U' or 'A' actualy 'h'? This is solved once again by looking at the patterns - there is only one word of the form 'tAis' and '
this' is it.
So, what is that 'tUI' at the begining of the sentence? There are only a few three letter words that begin with 'ta' or 'tr': tab, tag, tan, tap, tar, tau, tax, and try. Only try makes any sence.
stnlo i puc e d
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
try not to haJe a Zood tiYe. this is supposed to Ne educational.
-- charles schulL
At this point, it is very easy to read it without having to
use any more cryptographic techniques:
Try not to have a good time. This is supposed to be educational.
--Charles Schultz
The above cryptogram is from Yahoo! Games