In a columnar transposition cipher, the plain text is “the tomato is a plant…
2020
In a columnar transposition cipher, the plain text is “the tomato is a plant in the night shade family”, keyword is “TOMATO”. The cipher text is
- A.
“TINESAX / EOAHTFX / HTLTHEY / MAIIAIX / TAPNGDL / OSTNHMX”
- B.
“TINESAX / EOAHTFX / MAIIAIX / HTLTHEY / TAPNGDL / OSTNHMX”
- C.
“TINESAX / EOAHTFX / HTLTHEY / MAIIAIX / OSTNHMX / TAPNGDL”
- D.
“EOAHTFX / TINESAX / HTLTHEY / MAIIAIX / TAPNGDL / OSTNHMX”
Attempted by 97 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A
First, remove spaces from the plaintext to get 'thetomatoisaplantinthenightshadefamily'. Write this text into a grid with 6 columns, matching the length of the keyword 'TOMATO'.
Assign column numbers based on the alphabetical order of the keyword letters (A, M, O, O, T, T). Read the columns sequentially in this sorted order to generate the ciphertext.
The resulting ciphertext sequence matches the correct option.