Car Crash Solution

How It Works

This puzzle encodes data in several different places. When teams listened to the CD more carefully, they realized that each song spelled out letters. This gave them a set of letters to work with, and the accompanying booklet provided a way of extracting data out of those letters.

In the booklet, teams noticed that there were just as many numbers in the text as tracks on the CD. They also realized that there are many cities and – when plotted out on a map – the cities formed numbers that could also be used to index into the track letters.

Solution

• Realize there are 23 songs
• Realize that each song spells out words
• Realize there are 23 numbers in the text
• Make the connection that the numbers in the text are indices into the spelled out words
• Extract "PLOT CITIES INDEX INTO EVEN"
• Look at text and realize that each page has many cities in it.
• For each page, connect the cities on a map.
• Realize that after connecting a page's cities, you get a number.
• Repeat for all pages.
• Indices page/city numbers into even track's spelled out words.
• Get the answer: SAFETY DANCE

For extra credit, teams might have noticed that the journal entries were written by Professor Guy Nocap. This is a reference to the artist of Safety Dance, namely Men Without Hats