Difference between revisions of "British WW2 Codebreaking"
From Londonhua WIKI
(→Enigma) |
(→Enigma) |
||
| Line 29: | Line 29: | ||
What is it and why was it a big deal | What is it and why was it a big deal | ||
| − | In order to communicate with troops on the battlefield and submarines away from base radio signals were utilized. This was a huge thing to do, but it did have it's drawbacks. As it was radio signals the enemy could intercept them. To protect the messages they needed to be enciphered. In the 1920s a German Engineer named Arthur Scherbius designed many different cipher machines. He settled on a design and called it Enigma.<ref>Churchhouse, R. (2001). Codes and ciphers: Julius Ceaser, the Enigma, and the Internet. Cambridge University Press. pp 111.</ref> This original design for Enigma was based upon a 26 letter keyboard for inputting the plaintext message, 26 lamps to show the cipher letters, a power supply, three removable wired wheels that rotate around a common axis, a fixed reflector, and a fixed entry wheel. How this was setup introduced two important features; no letter can encipher itself, and there is symmetry of plain-cipher pairs, ex. if J enciphers M, then M enciphers J.<ref>Churchhouse, R. (2001). Codes and ciphers: Julius Ceaser, the Enigma, and the Internet. Cambridge University Press. pp 112-115.</ref> | + | In order to communicate with troops on the battlefield and submarines away from base radio signals were utilized. This was a huge thing to do, but it did have it's drawbacks. As it was radio signals the enemy could intercept them. To protect the messages they needed to be enciphered. In the 1920s a German Engineer named Arthur Scherbius designed many different cipher machines. He settled on a design and called it Enigma.<ref>Churchhouse, R. (2001). Codes and ciphers: Julius Ceaser, the Enigma, and the Internet. Cambridge University Press. pp 111.</ref> This original design for Enigma was based upon a 26 letter keyboard for inputting the plaintext message, 26 lamps to show the cipher letters, a power supply, three removable wired wheels that rotate around a common axis, a fixed reflector, and a fixed entry wheel. How this was setup introduced two important features; no letter can encipher itself, and there is symmetry of plain-cipher pairs, ex. if J enciphers M, then M enciphers J.<ref>Churchhouse, R. (2001). Codes and ciphers: Julius Ceaser, the Enigma, and the Internet. Cambridge University Press. pp 112-115.</ref> This scrambling of letters would have been the equivalent of a complex substitution cipher if the wheels didn't move, but they did. Whenever a key was pressed a mechanical mechanism advanced the wheel one position, so after twenty-six key presses the first wheel would return to its starting position. Instead of being the same the second wheel would then turn, and once that wheel make it all the way around then the third wheel would turn. This rotating mechanism made the enciphering process very complex as all three wheels would not have returned to their original positions until 16,900 letters would have been enciphered.<ref>Churchhouse, R. (2001). Codes and ciphers: Julius Ceaser, the Enigma, and the Internet. Cambridge University Press. pp 119.</ref> |
<br><br> | <br><br> | ||
Revision as of 12:01, 23 May 2017
British WW2 Codebreaking
 Caption | |
| Location | Bletchly Park |
|---|---|
Contents
Abstract
The paragraph should give a three to five sentence abstract about your entire London HUA experience including 1) a summary of the aims of your project, 2) your prior experience with humanities and arts courses and disciplines, and 3) your major takeaways from the experience. This can and should be very similar to the paragraph you use to summarize this milestone on your Profile Page. It should contain your main Objective, so be sure to clearly state a one-sentence statement that summarizes your main objective for this milestone such as "a comparison of the text of Medieval English choral music to that of the Baroque" or it may be a question such as "to what extent did religion influence Christopher Wren's sense of design?"
Introduction
I suggest you save this section for last. Describe the essence of this project. Cover what the project is and who cares in the first two sentences. Then cover what others have done like it, how your project is different. Discuss the extent to which your strategy for completing this project was new to you, or an extension of previous HUA experiences.
As you continue to think about your project milestones, reread the "Goals" narrative on defining project milestones from the HU2900 syllabus. Remember: the idea is to have equip your milestone with a really solid background and then some sort of "thing that you do". You'll need to add in some narrative to describe why you did the "thing that you did", which you'd probably want to do anyway. You can make it easy for your advisors to give you a high grade by ensuring that your project milestone work reflects careful, considerate, and comprehensive thought and effort in terms of your background review, and insightful, cumulative, and methodical approaches toward the creative components of your project milestone deliverables.
Section 1: Background
Enigma
What is it and why was it a big deal
In order to communicate with troops on the battlefield and submarines away from base radio signals were utilized. This was a huge thing to do, but it did have it's drawbacks. As it was radio signals the enemy could intercept them. To protect the messages they needed to be enciphered. In the 1920s a German Engineer named Arthur Scherbius designed many different cipher machines. He settled on a design and called it Enigma.[1] This original design for Enigma was based upon a 26 letter keyboard for inputting the plaintext message, 26 lamps to show the cipher letters, a power supply, three removable wired wheels that rotate around a common axis, a fixed reflector, and a fixed entry wheel. How this was setup introduced two important features; no letter can encipher itself, and there is symmetry of plain-cipher pairs, ex. if J enciphers M, then M enciphers J.[2] This scrambling of letters would have been the equivalent of a complex substitution cipher if the wheels didn't move, but they did. Whenever a key was pressed a mechanical mechanism advanced the wheel one position, so after twenty-six key presses the first wheel would return to its starting position. Instead of being the same the second wheel would then turn, and once that wheel make it all the way around then the third wheel would turn. This rotating mechanism made the enciphering process very complex as all three wheels would not have returned to their original positions until 16,900 letters would have been enciphered.[3]
Bletchley Park
What is Bletchley Park and what is special about it
Mansion
Additional information on the Mansion
Hut 8
Additional information of the Hut
Alan Turing
Who is Alan Turing, what did he do, and how did he do it
Gordon Welchman
Who is Gordon Welchman, what did he do
Bombe
What is the Bombe, what does it do, who created it
The Impact
The impact of the cracking Enigma, what it did for the British and the Allies, and the impact it has had on encryption
Section 2: Deliverable
Enigma Recreation
Virtual recreation of an enigma machine
The Math behind it
Math behind the Enigma machine and showing why it was such a difficult problem
Gallery
Conclusion
In this section, provide a summary or recap of your work, as well as potential areas of further inquiry (for yourself, future students, or other researchers).
References
- ↑ Churchhouse, R. (2001). Codes and ciphers: Julius Ceaser, the Enigma, and the Internet. Cambridge University Press. pp 111.
- ↑ Churchhouse, R. (2001). Codes and ciphers: Julius Ceaser, the Enigma, and the Internet. Cambridge University Press. pp 112-115.
- ↑ Churchhouse, R. (2001). Codes and ciphers: Julius Ceaser, the Enigma, and the Internet. Cambridge University Press. pp 119.