Pike (cipher)
Pike cipher is like a secret code to keep messages safe from people who are not supposed to read them. It uses a fancy math trick called "modular addition" to scramble letters in a message.
Imagine you have a message that says "hello." But instead of writing it like that, you write it using numbers. "h" could be 8, "e" could be 5, "l" could be 12, and "o" could be 15. So your message is now "8 5 12 12 15."
But you don't want anyone to know what your message is, so you use the Pike cipher. You pick a secret number, called the "key." Let's say the key is 7. Now you add this key number to each number in your message. So the first number, 8, becomes 15 (8 + 7). The second number, 5, becomes 12 (5 + 7), and so on. Your new, encrypted message is now "15 12 19 19 22."
To decrypt the message, the person you're sending it to needs to know the key too. They take each number in the encrypted message and subtract the key from it. So 15 - 7 is 8 (which is "h"), 12 - 7 is 5 (which is "e"), and so on. Finally, they put the letters together and get the original message, "hello."
That's how the Pike cipher works – it uses addition and subtraction with a secret number to hide a message from prying eyes.
Imagine you have a message that says "hello." But instead of writing it like that, you write it using numbers. "h" could be 8, "e" could be 5, "l" could be 12, and "o" could be 15. So your message is now "8 5 12 12 15."
But you don't want anyone to know what your message is, so you use the Pike cipher. You pick a secret number, called the "key." Let's say the key is 7. Now you add this key number to each number in your message. So the first number, 8, becomes 15 (8 + 7). The second number, 5, becomes 12 (5 + 7), and so on. Your new, encrypted message is now "15 12 19 19 22."
To decrypt the message, the person you're sending it to needs to know the key too. They take each number in the encrypted message and subtract the key from it. So 15 - 7 is 8 (which is "h"), 12 - 7 is 5 (which is "e"), and so on. Finally, they put the letters together and get the original message, "hello."
That's how the Pike cipher works – it uses addition and subtraction with a secret number to hide a message from prying eyes.