Enigmatic Code

From New Scientist #657, 10th July 1969 [link] Hengist left Upper Bumpleigh on foot one morning along the level winding road to Lower Bumpleigh.

From Sphinx Magazine #158, September 1933 ABCDE and BACED are squares.

From New Scientist #3592, 25th April 2026 [link] [link] There are many positive whole numbers whose digits are all non-zero and different: for example 1289, 93 and 876.

From New Scientist #656, 3rd July 1969 [link] What better to catch the public’s eye than a blend of personalities and babies.

From Sphinx Magazine #157, September 1933 ABCD, BCAD and CBAD are squares.

From New Scientist #3591, 18th April 2026 [link] [link] 16² (= 256) and 16³ (= 4096) both have the same final digit.

From New Scientist #655, 26th June 1969 [link] Professor Plato assembled the six entrants for the prize in Applied Logic and remarked: “Gentlemen, I have now marked your papers and produced a final order, in which there are no ties.

From Sphinx Magazine, September 1933 Reconstruct the multiplication: The puzzle is credited to “M.

From New Scientist #3590, 11th April 2026 [link] [link] I picked the three-digit number 127, then removed the digit 2 to make the two-digit number 17.

From New Scientist #654, 19th June 1969 [link] With these words Adam introduced himself to Eve, thus uttering the first recorded palindrome.

From New Scientist #3589, 4th April 2026 [link] [link] If you erase the 6s from the top and bottom of the fraction 26/65, the resulting fraction is equivalent: 2/5 = 0.4.

From Sphinx Magazine, August 1933 AOUT is a prime number, as well as its reverse TUOA.

From New Scientist #653, 12th June 1969 [link] Sir Teaser Tetragon has paved his refectory as shown.

From New Scientist #3588, 28th March 2026 [link] [link] There are some numbers whose digits are all 1s or 2s and that don’t contain two 2s in a row: for example, 11, 112 and 212112.

From Sphinx Magazine #151, August 1933 Reconstruct the extraction of [the] square root.

From New Scientist #652, 5th June 1969 [link] To decide who pays for the drinks when they meet, North, East, South and West play “What’ll you have?”.

From New Scientist #3587, 21st March 2026 [link] [link] My niece and uncle share a birthday.

From Sphinx Magazine #148, July 1933 The arithmetic mean of NED and SASH is SHUN.

From New Scientist #651, 29th May 1969 [link] The Royal Ruritanian Post Office charges one krone per lb for parcels.

From New Scientist #3586, 14th March 2026 [link] [link] If you write down the sequence of whole numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.., what number will you be writing when you write the digit 7 for the 3rd time?

From Sphinx Magazine #147, July 1933 Reconstruct the extraction of [the] square root: [sphinx22]

From New Scientist #650, 22nd May 1969 [link] The Michelin quins, tiring of spinsterhood, each took a slimming cure.

From New Scientist #3585, 7th March 2026 [link] [link] There is a set of numbers (sometimes called curious numbers) that, when squared, return the same set of digits at the end of their square as the initial number itself.

From Sphinx Magazine #146, July 1933 Reconstruct the division: The puzzle is credited to “M.

From New Scientist #649, 15th May 1969 [link] The fruit machine in our club devours sixpences, which it occasionally returns as follows: 5s for the Jackpot 2s for any two members of the Jackpot in their correct positions, the third being missing 1s for the

From New Scientist #3584, 28th February 2026 [link] [link] (a) If you start with the number 513 and add it to the number made by reversing its digits, what do you get?

From New Scientist #648, 8th May 1969 [link] I know an arsonist, a burglar, a con-man and a double-agent whose happy hobby is stamp-collecting.

From New Scientist #3583, 21st February 2026 [link] [link] In freestyle chess, a player’s eight pieces (not including the pawns) are randomly placed on the back row of the board, with some restrictions.

From Sphinx Magazine, June 1933 Reconstruct the multiplication: [sphinx20]

From New Scientist #647, 1st May 1969 [link] A, B, C, D, E and F spent a wet weekend together.

From New Scientist #3582, 14th February 2026 [link] [link] In the grids above, shaded cells hold odd digits and unshaded cells hold even digits.

From Sphinx Magazine #142, June 1933 The two words in the name of ROSE–INNES from Yokoama are squares, while OR is a prime number.

From New Scientist #646, 24th April 1969 [link] Swoosh is so eager to get at stains that it often eats holes in the clothes.

From New Scientist #3581, 7th February 2026 [link] [link] A sequence of numbers starts 0, 2, 6, 12, 20, 30, … Can you calculate the next two numbers in the sequence?

From Sphinx Magazine, May 1933 MAI is the square of ST.

From New Scientist #645, 17th April 1969 [link] The recent by-election in Wessex North was contested by Tory, Liberal and Labour.

From New Scientist #3580, 31st January 2026 [link] [link] Consider the triangle of numbers known as Pascal’s triangle, in which each number is the sum of the two above it, and the outside edges are always 1s (see diagram).

From Sphinx Magazine #135, May 1933 Reconstruct the extraction of [the] square root.

From New Scientist #644, 10th April 1969 [link] My four widowed aunts live on different floors of a huge block of flats.

From New Scientist #3579, 24th January 2026 [link] [link] (a) Two terms of a sequence are known — the sixth is 6 and the seventh is 7.

From New Scientist #643, 3rd April 1969 [link] There used to be 106 firms making mufflers for ostriches with stiff necks.

From Sphinx Magazine #134, April 1933 Reconstruct the division: [sphinx14]

From New Scientist #3578, 17th January 2026 [link] [link] Starting at point X in the bottom-left corner, and without doubling back by travelling down or left, there are two possible ways to get to point A, as shown.

From New Scientist #642, 27th March 1969 [link] Og, Gog and Magog are three gnomes, who know the answer to any question.

From New Scientist #3577, 10th January 2026 [link] [link] In each grid below, find two expressions – evaluating to the same number – that cross the grid from left to right and from top to bottom, sharing only the highlighted cell.

From New Scientist #641, 20th March 1969 [link] Dear Limey, I spent this afternoon running a stall selling raffle tickets at our Agnostic Church social.

From Sphinx Magazine #134, April 1933 ROME, PARIS, ARRAS, ARLON and LENS are five prime numbers.

From New Scientist #3576, 3rd January 2026 [link] [link] What are the first 12 prime numbers?

Happy New Year from Enigmatic Code!

From Sphinx Magazine #130, April 1933 Reconstruct the extraction of [the] square root: [sphinx12]