Finding Mrs. Tran's Cow

Mystery Description:

Mrs. Tran's cow has gone missing! we have been assigned partners (mine being Sahana) to solve this mystery using an array of clues given to us. there are 5 clues, and we start with clue 1 and gaining the next clue once we solve it, with clue 5 being the hardest to decipher. we will use our javascript skills and programs to aid us in this investigation assignment.

Procedure:

this shows how our program found the clue and our decrypted clues

Part 1: first 4 clues

We started the mystery off by solving the first 4 clues one by one using the code we made in class. We would input the encrypted text into our caesar cipher decryption program to find the correct key to find the clue. each clue from clues 1-4 could be found with this program, so we got through them relatively fast. we found that the cow was on campus, and that mint candy had to do with it, Ms Sanchez office was where the candy was, a key will be the length of a phone number.

Part 2: Clue 5 progress

Once we accomplished clues 1-4 in good time, we were given clue 5. We quickly realized that just plugging it into our 1 to 2 digit cipher decryption program wouldn't work, and soon found that it was solvable through a 10 digit key that we would have to figure out. We first discovered that the first 6 digits were from the phone number in clue 4, "650806", but we lost our leads to the last 4 numbers afterward. we brainstormed and tried to piece together other clues, but with little success.

our code that figured out the first 4 did not work for clue 5, we then wrote down our leads and ideas for the last 4 digits

we identified some words that were somewhat wrong like "Ms. Sanchez" and "kids" and used these to plug in the right numbers in the right places.

we finally found that the key was 6508069789, finishing this mystery first in the class to get milk lollipops!

Part 3: Clue 5 uncovered

After spending a long time trying to figure out the clues, we decided to find a new strategy. because the majority of the key was found, we could make out what many of the words should become. we then used this to first find wich digit affected a given wrong letter in a word we know and then figure out what digit 1-9 made it correct. some key words we used were "Ms. Sanchez" and "kids". after repeating this process, we found that the cow was not stolen and it went to Ms. Sanchez's office for candy before hanging out with the JH kids, solving the mystery!

Solution:

We found out no one stole the cow and that it had gotten candy from Ms. Sanchez Office and had hung out with some JH kids afterward. the final key solution for clue 5 was 6508069789, and Sahana and I found the "cow" (milk lollipops) with Ms. Sanchez. we found out that the last 4 digits where the keys to the first 4 clues (9, 7, 8, 9) after finishing, which would have lead us to the answer faster if we had figured it out.

Soul Reflection:

S - My strength was the problem solving skills I had, and how my javascript programs was pristine and worked perfectly.

O - I could have solved it in another potentially more efficient way, like figuring out the clues for the last 4 digits or just plugging in every possible combination for that 4 digits from 0000-9999.

U - I exercised my problem solving skills and learned how to decipher codes that can't just be solved easily by plugging them in to a system.

L - I was limited by using the more simple programs I had created, and not a more complex code that could figure out complicated encryptions like clue 5 with ease.

WISCR Reflection:

Two aspects of WISCR that I applied were "Well rounded" and "Insightful and critical thinker". I used problem solving skills and coding skills to accomplish this task efficiently, as well as working with my parter well. I also had to really push my self and think deeply and insightfully to find the answer.

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